ICLEI Local Governments for Sustainability and Shenzhen Low-Carbon Development Foundation (hereon referred to as the Parties) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) at the 21st annual meeting of Conference of Parties (COP) in Paris. The climate collaborative agreement stems off of the Parties shared and firm belief that a clean environment and a strong economy can co-exist, and clean energy technology is one of the key paths to ensuring a clean environment and a prosperous future.
The MOU seeks to accelerate the use of low-carbon clean technologies to assist cities –hubs of human activities and ingenuity – to transition to a low carbon economy and cleaner environment. Among many action items, the Parties aim to construct and promote a shared Platform for international low-carbon clean technology demonstration and communication, and enhance information sharing and capacity building around low-carbon clean technology development.
This agreement builds on the Parties earlier meeting during the first U.S.-China Climate Leaders Summit back in September, where a delegation from Shenzhen including former deputy mayor Mr. Tang and Ms. Liu, Secretary General of Shenzhen Low-Carbon Development Foundation participated in the launch event of ICLEI’s newest watershed initiative – California-China Urban Climate Collaborative (CCUCC). Subsequently, Shenzhen welcomed ICLEI’s invite to join the initiative as one of the first cohort of CCUCC cities.
“CCUCC is a replicable and scalable initiative designed to facilitate long-term, action-oriented and mutual learning urban climate collaborations. The initiative is set to bring together leading cities from both sides of the pacific looking to achieve tangible emissions reduction and air pollution mitigation.” says Angie Fyfe, Director of Resource Efficiency and Renewable Energy program at ICLEIUSA. “One of the key component of the initiative is connecting clean technology industry to end user cities, which is very much in line and mutually-reinforcing with what we hope to achieve through the agreement with Shenzhen Low-Carbon Development Foundation” stated Ms. Fyfe speaking about the complementary relationship between CCUCC and the newly inked MOU.
As the first cohort of CCUCC cities, Shenzhen along with leading Californian and Chinese cities are set to take full advantage of the CCUCC network to showcase their respective low-carbon development successes and to strengthen areas where they could benefit from the network’s collective low-carbon development experience and technological knowhow.
As world leaders convene in Paris to negotiate for a blinding global climate agreement that safeguards the global community against “years of living dangerously,” leading cities and climate champion leaders are already charting the course for a cleaner and safer climate future powered by innovative low-carbon clean technologies.