322: Inside COP: The Power of Cities - from the Local Leaders Forum

Fiona McRaith: [00:12:13] Yeah, just so much respect for Mark and the C40 team. I mean, there was so much vibrancy and dynamism exhibited over the past few days at this, at this summit, and that bodes so well, I think, to bring that energy into BLM, into Cop.

Tom : [00:12:28] Yeah, absolutely. Now, one of the great things about these summits is there's so many amazing leaders around. And Mayor Keith Wilson, I was actually on a panel with him just before I talked to him for this little interview we're about to hear. And this is a panel about lane shift now. Lane shift, as you know, is a partnership between C40 and the Climate Pledge to look at decarbonizing freight. And Keith was the most incredible panelist because not only is he a mayor of of of a great American city that is looking to drive down emissions and decarbonize freight, but he also used to own a low carbon trucking company called Titan Freight Systems. So him, together with the mayor of Milan, the deputy mayor of Seattle, we had a dialogue on stage about lane shift and how we're moving now really to implementation. But afterwards I had this broader discussion about the summit. Mayor, you and I just got off stage. We were here at the C40 summit together talking about zero emissions freight. So you watched C40 while you were running a freight company, right. And then you and then you got elected. And now, of course, you're mayor. And you remember exactly. Yeah. So how's it going in Portland? A change of administration in the US. Are you able to keep going with your emissions reductions?

Keith Wilson: [00:13:33] Yeah. You know, right behind us is the, uh, signage on the Portland Clean Energy Fund. So every year we have a fund that renews with $200 million a year to fund climate mitigation adaptation and really to address the climate crisis. So we've got a fund that's really powering emissions reduction in Portland.

Tom : [00:13:53] And now that the Inflation Reduction Act money has been removed, you're able to move forward and still see the emissions reductions.

Keith Wilson: [00:14:00] You know, that's a good point. So that bill had a tremendous amount of grants that were coming from it. And now that's going to be stalled for at least the next three years. But in Portland, we're not stalling because we've got the funding to move forward and meet our emissions reduction goals internally. So we're not going to be playing the scapegoat. We're not blaming anybody. We will do what we have to do today to meet our emissions goals.

Tom : [00:14:21] Do you think cities in general in the US have the tools to meet the goals? Even with the federal pullback? This is a question of determination and moving forward.

Keith Wilson: [00:14:28] Yeah. Well I'll answer that. On the reverse. We have to have the determination not to put our emissions goals into other people's programs. We cannot scapegoat or blame others. We have to take responsibility. Without the federal government, though, because there's such a large player, our jobs are more difficult, which means we have to be more resourceful, continue to focus on achieving our goals with scarcity, which means we have to be more dynamic and creative in our approach. And frankly, let me add a little bit more. That's what makes C40 actually more important. Collaboration and partnership. Sharing goals and successes with one one another is more important now than ever before.

Tom : [00:15:09] So what are you finding when you come here? I mean, you're now around your your, your colleagues, mayors from all over the world. Do they kind of come up to you and give you a hug and say, it's going to be all right, it's just a few years and we'll get through this.

Keith Wilson: [00:15:18] You know, there's a lot of that only because Portland's in the eye of the storm right now on a hostile government. But what's interesting, though, is, is I'm I'm in awe of some of the programs that these other mayors are highlighting are amazing in London, the ultra Low Emission Zone, congestion pricing, focusing business and focusing constituent health over automobiles and other old, outdated last century sort of modes of transportation. Uh, there's a lot of things I wish I could take away and I could implement tomorrow, but it's going to take time.

Tom : [00:15:51] We're here at the World Mayors Summit just before national governments meet in Belgium for Cop 30. What momentum from here do you hope will land there?

Keith Wilson: [00:16:00] You know, we had, uh, several of the Cop 30 officials here and they were asking us, so what do we need to do to collaborate with the cities? And I would say that the cities should be at the table right now, because no matter what our national governments come up with, or in the case of the US, they've abdicated. Right? Cities are that incubators. Cities are where we're going to try and implement new technologies to move things forward. So I would say at Cop 30, we need to be closer to the decision makers as opposed to the downstream effect.

Tom : [00:16:33] And your government. Trump administration is likely not to play a constructive role in Berlin. We saw International Maritime Organization. They used very difficult tactics to stop anyone from agreeing. I mean, quite amazing. It's quite astonishing, quite amazing. What can cities do to try and make up for what will be a huge absence on the world stage?

Keith Wilson: [00:16:50] Well, we have to look. So we have an administration federally that's focused on last century's technology. And they're still playing this climate denier game. They're still talking about they made it more about partisanship and profits, because we know the fossil fuel industry is still fueling that narrative. Right, right. That's where the campaign finance. So we really do need to use the Cop 30 to start talking about new technology. And that's transit. And the efficiency it brings both in velocity and frequency and focus on renewables. So we need to stop this argument because it's no longer about climate deniers. It's about clear partisanship, trying to keep an old fashioned fossil fuel industry going when we know it's a dying breed. We need to just get away from what we know is past transgressions and get forward in this new century. And we need technology. We need the high speed rail and the transit that London has in the United States, because we still don't have that transformative technology. Well, okay. Well, to some degree.

Tom : [00:17:58] Portland is increasingly in wildfire territory in the US, which is a serious issue for you. We saw earlier this year terrible fires affecting Los Angeles. You know, great American city, devastating. And yet the media narrative was about how die means there's no water in the fire trucks, right? We lost that narrative in a way where it should have connected climate to what's happening to people. What do you need in order to connect that narrative when sadly, the next fire happens? And it may be anywhere on the West Coast, including near your city?

Keith Wilson: [00:18:28] You know, that's a good point. We can't fight misinformation with additional information. We can't chase every lie. So what we have to do as far as good government is build trust within our government. Right now, we're experiencing that by just being impacted and attacked by a federal administration that's hostile to what we're trying to do. So what we have to do in Portland, notwithstanding Karen Bass, who's the mayor and mayor, is we have to just show what good government looks like, build trust. But we have to be effective as well. We have to deliver on the promises we make. It's not about di. It's just about running our cities well. Focusing on quality and focusing on safety and focusing on sustainability and building the trust with our constituents. So when those attacks come, the fake attacks, the false attacks, they can look to us and say, there are leaders at the helm and they'll understand what's real and what's fiction.

Tom : [00:19:22] Fantastic, mayor. Thank you so.

Keith Wilson: [00:19:23] Much. Thank you.

Tom : [00:19:24] Tom.

Keith Wilson: [00:19:24] Yeah, pleasure.

Tom : [00:19:29] So great to talk to Keith Wilson and to hear his strategy, and also how he's able to keep moving at this critical moment, even though the federal government is pulling back. Super clear eyed about the strategy and the challenges, but also about the opportunities. Well, after we talked to the mayor of Portland, you and I, of course, went to Christiano's closing plenary, where she moderated a panel I unfortunately had to dash halfway through, but what I saw was fantastic. Why don't you let us know what that was?

Fiona McRaith: [00:19:52] So I joined Christiana in a packed auditorium for the closing plenary. She moderated a panel with some brilliant panelists who were here from including Mayor Anne Hidalgo, the mayor of Paris, known for championing urban climate action through cycling expansion, green infrastructure and iconically cleaning. The Seine.

Tom : [00:20:12] Who was in post in 2015 for Paris and was an amazing leader.

Fiona McRaith: [00:20:15] Yes, indeed. Thank you for that reminder. Yeah, just hosted the 2024 Olympics. I mean, amazing, amazing woman. And we'll hear from her. Um, also, Yvonne Aki-sawyerr, the mayor of Freetown in Sierra Leone and chair of C40. She is recognized for community driven climate action and advocacy for finance and structural support to make sustainable choices viable in developing nations. So eloquent, so inspiring. Um, and also Juliet Oluoch, youth climate advocate on stage, and Marcelo Bahat, special envoy to the Cop 30 presidency.

Tom : [00:20:48] And Marcelo, of course, came on before to help us understand, actually, that the accommodation issue in Belem was going to be resolved. So that was Marcelo.

Fiona McRaith: [00:20:55] I had forgotten that was Marcelo. I just adore him. He's so wonderful. And so, I think, emblematic of just the wonderful energy that the Cop 30 presidency has been bringing to this.

Tom : [00:21:03] Absolutely. Great. Okay. Should we have a listen?

Fiona McRaith: [00:21:06] Yeah.

Christiana: [00:21:09] Here is my analysis of where we are. From a city and a local region perspective. There is actually a lot of Enthusiasm, but not just enthusiasm. A lot of commitment and a lot of results happening in most countries in the world. And I think this time of year together has really confirmed that. So we come here to Rio to celebrate that comma and to have a moment of reckoning. And the moment of reckoning is it's still not enough, because the numbers show us that we are not catching up with an exponential curve of damage that hurts our people first, as well as all of the other life on this planet, and that the exponential curve that it is competing against, which is the exponential curve of solutions. Those two are competing against each other. I have full trust that the exponential curve of solutions will win this race, but it's not there yet. So if you will forgive me for using analogy, that has to do with Russia. Sorry, I know it's not quite the most popular country these days, but how many of you remember what Russian dolls look like? Do you remember? Okay, so you have a big fat doll, and then inside you have another one and then another one and then. Okay, so I put it to you, my dear panel colleagues here, that you are the doll in the middle, that each individual citizen in your jurisdictions represents the little doll in the center of which there are millions.

Christiana: [00:23:02] The Jewel or the doll in the middle that is actually doing a brilliant job, but that you have to push the doll, the bigger doll at the top. National governments that are not quite doing the best job that they ought to be doing, especially in some countries who shall go unnamed. So the question that I would love to engage you on and the conversation is what can be done to harvest the lessons that you already have. You two, as mayors and I would first like to to go to you, because if we have known each other for ten years since we were both together in Paris yesterday at the at the meeting here, I was reminding colleagues of the amazing, amazing photograph that you took of 400 mayors that you convened in Paris in order to help national governments push them over the line so that we could adopt, in addition, an ambitious Paris agreement. But since then, and you have had honestly a tough time pushing through your vision of the climate responsible measures that you had in mind for Paris. That is perhaps not very different from the tough time that we have globally now. So what are your lessons learned?

Anne Hidalgo: [00:24:31] Well, thank you, and I'm very happy to be with you today, because when I see you, Cristina, I remember you're tough. You're big. Tough. Uh, during the negotiation about the Paris Agreement and, uh, and I think since, uh, ten years, we we did a lot. We mayors are part of solution because we are connected with the people, with the citizens. And if we want to achieve the goals to the Paris Agreement, we need to bring the people with us. And the citizens are okay for that. The citizens want to be part of the solution. And and today, with the Cup of Belgium and with the leadership of the president Lula, with the also the policies of the President Lula involving cities, national government. Uh, I think we have a new opportunity for a new step. And what is very interesting is that, um, around the world, the cities are very activist in the in the achievement of the goals of the Paris Agreement. It works. I have the experience of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games in Paris. I aligned the Olympic Games and the target of the Olympic Games with the the own proposal of the cities in the perspective of the Paris Agreement.

Anne Hidalgo: [00:26:10] You know, for me, the Olympic Games needed to be a very ecological games and and it was and because we had a common target between the city and the national level, because we have one date, we need it to be ready for the 26th July 2024. And we did it. We did it all together and we align all our objective targets, for example, mobility in the city with the bicycle lines, with also all the area we planted with trees, but also for the Seine, the River Seine, we clean the River Seine. It is amazing. Everybody say the mayor is crazy, but we did it, we did it. And today the River Seine is one of the most important measure for the adaptation of the city to the climate change. Because. Because we need to. To be. A link with the river. And last summer, last summer we had 1000 people swimming in the River Seine for free. For free. Well, we can do it and we want to do it. We have to do it and we are very determined for that. Thank you.

Christiana: [00:27:33] Thank you Ann. So what I take from that, Ann, is alignment. It is obviously the most effective when you can have alignment all the way through alignment for the quality of life of each individual. That's the important thing. So Yvonne, over to you. Because Freetown, the tree town, has for such a long time had this vision that the leadership here is about. Yes, okay. It's about reducing emissions. I'm not going to quibble with that, but it's about the quality of life and how can we use that argument? How do we best do that?

Speaker7: [00:28:16] Thank you very much. And as you were talking about the dolls and we're inside and we're trying to push the doll up, I think that the example that that Andras gave, the example you just mentioned with the trees is precisely that we align to what affects everyone today. Climate change ten years ago, 20 years ago. For many people, it felt much more theoretical. Today it is very practical. And I think helping us to push those dolls up is by ensuring that we use information correctly. So as we think about the challenge of the government, I think the best alignment, the best way forward, is bringing this back to everyone's lived experience. There isn't a person, nobody now in the world who in some way is not being impacted by climate change. And I think our responsibility is one of message. It's one of clarity of message. In a session this morning, somebody said, stop saying mitigation, adaptation, say cause and consequence. This is what is causing it. This is the consequence. When you put it in that language, it makes our job of pushing those dolls easier because everybody wants to preserve themselves.

Christiana: [00:29:38] Thank you. Thank you, Yvonne and Juliette, over to you. Because, um, this is basically your bread and butter. You you really help to figure out how, um, more commitment, more action is going to be mobilized. I'm sure you have an incredibly strategic head there that figures out how do we best do this. So this that we have heard from both mayors about how how do we align from from the bottom all the way to the top? What is your best lesson?

Speaker8: [00:30:15] Thank you so much, and it's a pleasure to be here once again. And I want to answer that in different levels. But first I think we need to agree to one thing. We are all affected by climate change. And if we are all affected by climate change, it means we need all the voices in the room. And so everyone has a role to play from the bottom, just like Mayor Erkki. And everyone has alluded to all the way to the top. I will start with the top because it's easy to reach people at the bottom. Right. So to our governments, I would say work with us, work with us. It's as simple as that. And I will speak on behalf of the young people. Young people are co architects. I've said this I think five times in this forum, but we are co architects of our future today. So that means we need to be part of decision making panels decision making boards. And I will pose a rhetorical question in your organization. You have a board. Do you have a youth representative on that board? That is where it starts. We all have a story, and that story is meant to inspire change. So to everyone in the room, at whatever level that you are, tell your story. Change will begin when we tell our stories and when we own these stories and aim to inspire.

Christiana: [00:31:51] Marcelo, to those of you who don't know, the Cop presidency has been very wise in extending its reach into everywhere, and they have set up a series of special envoys into different areas and into different geographies. And Marcelo, thank you very much. You are the special Envoy for bioeconomy. Now, if you will allow me, I'm going to pull you just a little bit away from bioeconomy. Would you agree that bioeconomy has to be put at the service of the human being, at the service of the quality of life of those who are experiencing this planet now, and especially in the future? And is that something that can be reflected next week?

Marcelo: [00:32:41] Good afternoon, Christiana and Yvonne. Juliette, my friends here. The short answer is yes. So I think we are going to face next week something that is very meaningful, something that President Lula called the turnaround cop. This is for me, it's really an honor to be in a panel with the architect of the Paris Agreement with the mayor of Paris, who did a major transformation, who brought nature back to Paris with the force of nature that is coordinating C40 and with a young youth climate, and to be minority on a women's panel for me is an honor. Really. Thank God. Finally, we are shifting the position. Having said that, I think now we all know what we have to do, right? The world is a meeting in order to produce $100 trillion. We are emitting 38 gigatons of CO2 and we are chopping down 100 million hectares of forests. This is no longer acceptable. That was called years ago. The new world order. We don't need that. We need the new world balance. And I think there is today a statement going out asking for heads of state to be conscious and to be brave and to be bold and to take action.

Christiana: [00:33:57] Thank you so much, everyone. So you heard it here.

Tom : [00:34:00] So great to hear that and I was sorry to miss all of it live, but I was there for a bit and then great to hear it again. Um, it's always I always find it fun to sort of see, you know, when we are with Cristiano and we see her grappling with a concept and coming up with an analogy that really works like these Russian dolls that she talked about in the episode the other day. And then there she is on stage, kind of like continuing to develop that concept. I think it clearly landed, and it helped people understand this relationship between specific actions and systemic engagements between different levels of the system. And Cristiano has always said, and we've always had as a principle, that what is present at one level of the system is a present across the system, and the more we can be aware of that, the more it actually helps us feel really engaged and empowered. Now, I mean, some of the reflections from there is there was quite a bit of discussion about the way in which cities, of course, are reflections of people. It made me think about this cultural engagement, how we can get cities more engaged. And back to the 89%. I thought it was a great panel and really helpful and useful outcomes.

Fiona McRaith: [00:34:58] Yeah, I was really taken by the rootedness within which each one of the panelists understood the way in which they could really show up and embrace their role as representatives of bigger constituencies. That that was really beautiful to me.

Tom : [00:35:12] Now, I understand that after Cristiano's panel was over, there were also some closing words from Mayor Eduardo Paes, the mayor of Rio, and Sadiq Khan, the co-chair of C40. I sadly wasn't in the room anymore. What did you take from those discussions?

Fiona McRaith: [00:35:26] I mean, just Rio has been so wonderful and the leadership of Paes, Mayor Paes, has been really, really tangible. The energy and openness and camaraderie he has brought. Um, as you say, with the Russian dolls, it has seeped and been brought into all elements, whether or not he is physically present here. And I know that that will continue in Belém because all of Brazil is doing that through the presidency. Um, Mayor Khan I mean, really, are just clear eyed, eloquent leadership about the urgency and choice that we have to continue and actually lean further into dependency on dirty energies of yesterday, or lean into the economies that are here and rising the green economies.

Tom : [00:36:15] Great. I mean, this has been, I think, a really inspiring few days to kick us off. You know, the Local Leaders forum is not a warm up. It's a thing in itself. And it delivers clearly real action and momentum. And even if we weren't going to the cop now, I think it would stand on its own as an impactful event that really drives change, but as a contextual piece that actually sets us up for what's coming next, I think it sends a challenge, it sends momentum. It's going to be really interesting to see how this now plays in to where we will be tomorrow in Belgium at the World Leaders Summit.

Fiona McRaith: [00:36:45] Yeah, absolutely.

Tom : [00:36:47] Great. Okay. I think that's it. We'll see you all tomorrow.

Fiona McRaith: [00:36:50] Bye.