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Join the Earth Hour City Challenge now!

ICLEI - Local Governments for Sustainability (ICLEI) cordially invites cities and towns in 14 countries to participate in the internationally acclaimed Earth Hour City Challenge (EHCC) 2013/2014.The EHCC is run by WWF in collaboration with ICLEI and the Swedish Postcode Lottery.

Founded in Sweden to celebrate Earth Hour 2011, the Earth Hour City Challenge initiative was created to celebrate cities and towns that are taking innovative actions towards creating a greener, cleaner and more sustainable city to live in, while inspiring other cities to do the same.

For the 2013/2014 edition, local governments from the following countries can enroll: Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Indonesia, Italy, India, Mexico, Netherlands, South Korea, Sweden and USA. 

Local governments in Brazil, Philippines, Thailand, South Africa and Colombia should check the participation status with their local WWF and ICLEI offices.

Participating cities and towns can already start reporting their commitments, performances and actions on the carbonn® Cities Climate Registry (cCCR), an internationally recognized greenhouse gas emissions reporting platform for local governments, managed by ICLEI.The Registry will remain open until 13 October 2013 for EHCC reporting. 

The evaluation process conducted by an international jury of expert will then lead to the nomination of one Earth Hour capital per participating country and one selected global Earth Hour Capital. All finalists will be celebrated and promoted through social media, web, films, conferences and a global award ceremony close to Earth Hour in 2014.

For more information on the EHCC and the cCCR, interested city representatives can follow introduction webinars by registering on this page. Next sessions will be held on 19 June 2013. An instruction booklet for EHCC candidates is also available for download here.

At the World Mayors Summit on Climate in Mexico City on 21 November 2010, two groundbreaking initiatives were launched: Global Cities Covenant on Climate - "the Mexico City Pact", and the carbonn® Cities Climate Registry (cCCR) as the global mechanism for reporting local climate information.

 

Earth Hour City Challenge 2013 National and Global Capitals

WWF’s Earth Hour City Challenge (EHCC) has recognised the City of Vancouver, Canada, for its innovative actions on climate change and dedication to create a sustainable, pleasant urban environment for current and future residents.

After carefully reviewing the merits of the six finalists, the EHCC jury of experts unanimously cast their votes for Vancouver as the first ever Global Earth Hour Capital. Also in the running for the title were finalists Forlì in Italy; New Delhi, India; Oslo, Norway; Uppsala, Sweden; and San Francisco, USA.

For details, read WWF and ICLEI press releases.

cCCR March 2013 Update

Download cCCR November 2012 Update and the cCCR March 2013 Overview Map.

As of March 2013, 302 cities from 42 countries, controlling a community GHG emissions of around 1.5 GtCO2e annually, reported 561 energy and climate commitments, 578 GHG inventories and 2471 mitigation/adaptation actions/action plans at the cCCR. This remarkable accomplishment has been achieved through 3 main drivers:

1. Voluntary reporting pursuant to a global political commitment (the role of the Mexico City Pact)

2. Capacity building at the national level (the good practice of Local Government Climate Registry Japan)

3. Creating incentives (partnership with WWF Earth Hour City Challenge)

The cCCR clearly highlights the importance of local governments in raising the global level of ambition to reduce GHG emissions, increase climate risk adaptation preparedness and move towards low-emissions development. This immense potential can be rapidly mobilized if the global climate community engages with local governments and scales up direct technical and financial support.