Mayors from around the world signed a voluntary pact, committing them to the reduction of urban greenhouse gas emissions, at a climate summit in Mexico City. The pact was signed by 138 cities including European ICLEI members Barcelona (Spain) and Nantes (France) on 21 November 2010.

Speaking at the event, Regional Director for ICLEI Europe Gino Van Begin, said, “the same nations who recognised the importance of local action in another 1992 UN Convention on Biodiversity three weeks ago, in Nagoya, Japan, with the adoption of the Plan of Action on Sub-national Governments, Cities and other Local Authorities and Biodiversity (2011-2020), should now do the same in the Climate COP in Cancún - starting in one week”.

A key component of the Mexico City Pact is the carbonn Cities Climate Registry. This Registry will support the global credibility of local climate action by allowing transparency, accountability and comparability of climate actions, performance and commitments. Among the Mexico City Pact signatories, five cities from five continents have already provided climate data in the registry: Copenhagen (Denmark), Calgary (Canada), Cape Town (South Africa), Mexico City (Mexico) and Nagpur (India). Christiana Figueres, UNFCCC Executive Secretary, explicitly supported the cities work on the implementation of local climate action on mitigation and adaptation and the cCCR.

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