Hamburg, 20 November 2009: Representatives from 22 cities have committed themselves to a low-carbon future. At the City Climate Conference held earlier this week in Hamburg, they declared that combating climate change was all about cities. Prior to next month’s UN Climate Conference in Copenhagen, cities also called on governments to adopt meaningful regulations, which would lead to a substantial reduction in CO2 emissions.

The cities represented, which included Abu Dhabi, Amman, Amsterdam,Barcelona, Chicago, Copenhagen, Frankfurt, Freiburg, Gdansk, Genoa, Göteborg, Helsinki, Kaliningrad, Kinshasa, Lagos, Lausanne, Marseille, Milos, Moscow, Munich, Nantes, San Francisco, Stockholm, St. Petersburg, Stuttgart, Tallinn, Valencia, Vienna and Warsaw, presented facts about cities in the face of climate change, signed up to several commitments and called for support from governments and international organisations.

Many delegates stressed that cities should act as role models. The conference’s final declaration said that city administrations would become a role model in public procurement. Cities also want citizens to become more involved in green urban planning. The declaration promises that cities will actively involve their citizens in ‘planning and implementation of climate action programmes’ and motivate them to make a contribution by their action to combating climate change.