C40 Cities continues its annual program to recognize leadership and best practices with an awards competition designed to draw attention to outstanding city-oriented actions that have achieved success in the challenging environmental context. The awards ceremony for the C40 Cities Awards is planned to coincide with activities around the 21st Conference of Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP21) to be held in Paris in December of this year.
Applications for the awards opened earlier this month. Cities can submit entries for consideration in 10 categories. Four are specific to the C40 member cities and cities that are committed to the Compact of Mayors and include carbon measurement and planning, adaptation planning and assessment, building energy efficiency, and green energy. Six remaining categories are open to all cities: finance and economic development, solid waste, adaptation implementation, smart cities and smart community engagement, sustainable communities, and transportation.
New to this year’s program is a publication—”2015 Cities100″—that is being produced in partnership with Sustainia, the Scandinavian think tank. The publication will identify, connect, and communicate the most ground-breaking solutions to problems of climate change that affect cities. The submissions for the C40 Cities Awards will also be included in the “2015 Cities100” publication. From this group, 20 cities will be selected as finalists of which 10 will be announced as winners of the C40 Cities Awards.
This year’s awards are being presented in partnership with Bloomberg Philanthropies and BYD, the Chinese automotive enterprise. They recognize the role that mayors of major global cities are taking in delivering innovative programs to reduce climate risk and build cities of the future. By recognizing the innovators, C40 Cities hopes to provide inspiration for a universal climate agreement at the COP21 meetings.
City applications and third-party nominations must be submitted on line by August 17, 2015. To find out more click here.