European capitals and big cities commit to joint public procurement #COP21

This Thursday, 26 March, about thirty mayors from European capitals and big cities gathered in Paris, which is to host the COP21 in December. Amongst the participating cities were some members of Energy Cities and Covenant of Mayors signatories.

On this occasion, a declaration was adopted to highlight cities’ commitment to joint public procurement. The orders relate to the fields where cities have an important buying power and where carbon impact is significant : transport (hybrid and electric vehicles for municipal fleets, natural-gas powered or electric dump trucks), energy (renewable sources), buildings, etc.

(Copyright: Patrick Klugman)
French Minister of Foreign Affairs Laurent Fabius, who will be the President of COP21, and European Commissionner for Climate Action & Energy Miguel Arias Cañete also attended the event. They reminded participants that local governments are key players in the energy transition. The largest networks of cities were represented by their directors, among which Claire Roumet for Energy Cities.

This meeting, organised on the initiative of Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo, is an important step towards the Conference on Climate to be held in Paris next December. Paris’ ambition (the French capital has been a member of Energy Cities since 2004) was to unite these big cities in order to “kick-start a dynamic of successes with an eye to COP21 and the years to come”.

See the Declaration (in French)

View an article in The Guardian

Energy Cities will carry on doing its best at European level to get legislative and financial mechanisms to support European local authorities in their efforts.

Two main Energy Cities’ #COP21 event to come :

• 22-24 April: Energy Cities’ Annual Conference – Aberdeen (UK)
  Climate-committed mayors’ session “Towards new energy governance”
• 1-2 July: World Climate Summit- Lyon (France)
  Workshop “Governance tools for cities and regions in post-carbon transition”.