Large Cities Climate Leadership Group

C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group (C40)

Founded	October, 2005 (London, United Kingdom)
Type	International organization
Focus	Climate change
Area served	Participating member cities
Method	Direct assistance, peer-to-peer exchange, research & communications
Steering Committee	Hong Kong, Jakarta, Johannesburg, London, Rio de Janeiro, Seoul, Tokyo, Boston, Milan, Copenhagen, Los Angeles, Amman and Mexico City
Key people	Mayor Anne Hidalgo (Chairman) Michael Bloomberg (President of the Board of Directors) President Bill Clinton (Founding Partner) Mark Watts (Executive Director)
Mission	C40 is committed to implementing meaningful and sustainable climate-related actions locally that will help address climate change globally.
Website	www.c40.org

The C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group (C40) is a network of the world's megacities taking action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. C40 harnesses the assets of member cities to address climate risks and impacts locally and globally.

C40 is composed of 83 member cities around the world. On November 26, the former C40 Chairman, the 108th Mayor of New York City, Michael R. Bloomberg, was succeeded by the Mayor of Rio de Janeiro, Eduardo Paes. Mayor Bloomberg served as the elected leader of the organization from 2010 – 2013, he will stay on as the President of the C40 Board of Directors. Along with the Chairman, a rotating steering committee of C40 mayors provides strategic direction and governance. Current steering committee members include: Tokyo, Hong Kong, Johannesburg, Jakarta, London, Seoul, Los Angeles, Copenhagen, Milan, Boston, Mexico City, Amman and Rio de Janeiro. With a focus on collaboration among member cities to exceed national climate targets, C40 has established eighteen networks across seven initiative areas with a global staff to support collaborative problem solving, promote the exchange of programs and policies developed by cities, and facilitate targeted peer-to-peer dialogue among city staff.

Through these efforts, C40 aims to demonstrate that cities are significantly reducing greenhouse gas emissions and hopes to provide proven models that other cities and national governments can adopt. In the words of C40 President Michael Bloomberg: "While international negotiations continue to make incremental progress, C40 Cities are forging ahead. Collectively they have taken more than 5,000 actions to tackle climate change, and the will to do more is stronger than ever. As innovators and practitioners, our cities are at the forefront of this issue – arguably the greatest challenge of our time."

The organization started in October 2005 when the former mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, convened representatives from 18 megacities to pursue action on reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The meeting resulted in an agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by taking action on a number of points, most notably procurement policies and alliances to accelerate the uptake of climate-friendly technologies. This agreement began what later became known as the C40 Climate Leadership Group.