The last day of the international agenda of Mayor Claudia López during her visit to Buenos Aires (Argentina) began with a meeting of mayors and vice mayors of Latin American cities members of the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group, a space to determine areas of support and possible strategies together to respond to each member city’s specific needs.
After this event, a press conference was held in which Mayor López announced the progress in sustainable development projects promoted through the cooperation of theC40 Cities Finance Facility (CFF), mainly in the adaptation of the buildings of public entities for the use of clean energy and sustainable structures.
"There is only one way to lead and that is by example. What we are doing from the Mayor's Office of Bogotá is what we are asking that other spaces also do, that not only use clean energy, but also water reuse mechanism, green gardens, green environments ... so that not only in the city’s public spaces, but also in our buildings and institutions we have that climate quality and sustainability," said the Mayor.
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Another initiative mentioned was the development of the bike Alamedas of Cycling Boulevard, which are complemented by other environmentally responsible transport strategies such as the creation of new bicycle paths in the city and Ciclovía Sundays, in which many roads are blocked to cars and reserved for bike riders. Currently Bogotá already has the El Porvenir Cycling Boulevard, a stretch of more than 18 kilometers of road suitable for bicycle use, and the next will be the Medio Milenio Cycling Boulevard that will begin in El Tunal Park and run all the way to 170th Street with a total extension of 27.7 kilometers.
The Mayor took advantage of this space and called on global financial institutions to support climate action projects through strategies that help reduce and avoid the current inflation that is being seen around the world.
"My call to multilateral banks is for all social, democratic, and environmental sustainability projects to have counter-cyclical financing at this time. Not with high interest rates, but with low ones, so that we can socially and sustainably rescue our cities, therefore, our democracies and therefore our planet," explained the Mayor.
Mayor López then participated in the press conference of the C40 Global Forum of Youth and Mayors, in which she serves as president. There, in the company of both mayors from various cities and international youth representatives, she officially announced the international network of the C40 cities’ youth committees network.
"As chair of the youth council, I am very pleased to announce that the proposal for C40 to lead the direct meeting between young people and the mayors of the respective C40 cities in each member city has been adopted," she said.
Below, a tweet from the official account of the C40 cities network highlighting the announcement made by Mayor López at the press conference:
At the Youth Press Conference today with @MayorAdler and @ClaudiaLopez, C40 announced its plan to create a global network of city-youth climate councils – encouraging political engagement and amplifying the voices of young climate activists around the world. #UnitedInActionpic.twitter.com/ApUh3uTmfP
— C40 Cities (@c40cities) October 21, 2022
As detailed by the Mayor, this project, in addition to establishing a platform for dialogue between young people and decision makers, will also be accompanied by a call for projects carried out with contributions from youth and mayors that will be promoted as financing scenarios.
The official announcement session was also attended by the renowned young Argentine activist Nicki Becker, who stressed that this is an important step to respond more effectively to the climate needs we currently face. “This is not an issue of the future but rather one that we are facing now, as can be seen with the heatwaves in Buenos Aires. It is a crisis that impacts different societal sectors, but especially the poorest," Becker explained.
Finally, Mayor López reiterated the importance of offering more tools and discussion spaces to young people who are leading climate action efforts around the world. "Young people make us act urgently, they are impatient, they have concrete proposals. This space is to include them in the debate so that democracies produce the changes they really need," said the Mayor.
