Leading Mega-Cities Helped to Manage their Greenhouse Gas Emissions

It has been announced today that Ricardo-AEA (UK) will be working with the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group to support 12 mega-cities in their efforts to mitigate climate change.

Now in its 10th year, the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group connects more than 75 of the world’s greatest cities, representing over 550 million people and one quarter of the global economy. Under the contract announced today, Ricardo-AEA and C40 are working with 12 mega-cities to manage greenhouse gas emissions: Amman, Buenos Aires, Cape Town, Johannesburg, Lagos, Lima, Melbourne, Mexico City, Rio de Janeiro, Tokyo, Sydney and Yokohama. In each case, Ricardo-AEA will help the cities to develop emissions inventories that will calculate and report on the greenhouse gases they produce.

The inventories will help to inform these mega-cities, which are accountable for a large share of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions. The work will help to shape and define the cities’ environmental priorities, ensure compliance with national and international objectives, and provide a sound evidence base for policy interventions.

Ricardo-AEA’s practice director for Energy and Climate Change, Heather Haydock said: “Helping these mega-cities to understand their greenhouse gas emissions offers one of the greatest opportunities to reduce global warming. Our experts will work with city leaders to ensure inventories are of high quality and consistent with global protocols for emissions reporting. Our team has already delivered a range of national and city-level inventories around the world, helping to inform climate change mitigation policy.”

Today’s announcement comes in the build up to the major international climate negotiations in Paris this December. The conference is tipped to have a strong city focus, with mayors and city leaders from around the world taking the opportunity to showcase innovative actions that demonstrate their commitment to tackling climate change.

Commenting on Ricardo-AEA’s wider climate change support services, Ricardo-AEA’s director for international projects, Chris Dodwell, said: “Our support to global cities is under-pinned by Ricardo-AEA’s market leading experience across the full range of climate change strategy support services – from national and local scale inventory development to the provision of advice on national climate change actions. We are incredibly excited to be given the chance to share our expertise with such high profile global cities”.