ICLEI member Cape Town was announced as the winner of this year’s Earth Hour City Challenge at a ceremony in Vancouver (Canada) last week. The competition is organised by the Worldwide Fund for Nature to promote renewable energy and encourage cities to prepare for climate change. ICLEI members Chicago, Seoul, Copenhagen and Stockholm were also acknowledged by the jury.

Cape Town was recognised for its roles as both a leader and an inspiration in climate change mitigation and adaptation. Since 2009 the city has been involved in a number of pioneering projects, including switching to LED lighting at traffic intersections, retrofitting more than 43,000 streetlights across the municipality, installing solar water heaters in clinics and nature reserve buildings, and upholding strict standards on sustainable procurement and financing.

In a joint statement, Gino Van Begin, Secretary General of ICLEI, Special Envoy for Cities and Climate Change Michael R. Bloomberg, and Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Christiana Figueres said, “Cape Town is a worthy winner of the Earth Hour Capital 2014 prize […] This achievement clearly demonstrates the important contribution emerging economies can make in the fight against climate change.”

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