De Lille reveals local climate change plans

Mayor reports back on ideas garnered at Paris conference

ELECTRIC buses, research into rooftop solar panels and renovation of old buildings to make them more energy efficient are among the projects being considered by the city council in a bid to address climate change.

Mayor Patricia de Lille floated the plans at a meeting of the Cape Town Climate Change Coalition this week and reported back on her engagements at COP21, the UNclimate forum, which was held in Paris in December.

At the UN talks, 195 countries adopted a historic deal which aims to abandon fossil fuels and keep global warming “well below” 2°C and, if possible, below 1.5°C.

Hastings Chikoko, Africa director for a global network of mayors, told the meeting on Wednesday that over 400 mayors had signed a Compact of Mayors to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, track progress, and prepare for climate change.

Although the Paris Agreement only comes into force in 2020, C40’s mayors are looking ahead at what can be done.

Chikoko said the COP21 agreement could not be achieved without cities because a third of the carbon budget needed to stay under 2°C was controlled by cities and local governments.

“For example, over two-thirds of the energy consumption is from buildings, transport, and industries that are in cities.”

De Lille said she had joined events at COP21 specifically dealing with the role that cities could play in pushing a more ambitious agenda on climate change than that adopted by national governments.

She said she had been struck by a message from London’s mayor, Boris Johnson, who implored cities to steal ideas from each other. “He was encouraging a partnership with cities around the world where the best ideas can be shared and implemented.”

She said she came away with a number of ideas, including one from the mayor of Stockholm that sewage was used to generate biogas to run their bus fleet.

De Lille said the greatest growth in emissions was likely to come from the transport sector over the next 25 years.

Tackling this would need major interventions to increase car occupancy, more efficient vehicles and increasing public transport.

Earlier this month the council called for tenders for the procurement of electric buses for the MyCiTi service.

The council is also retrofitting state-subsidised homes built between1994 and 2005 without insulated ceilings.

De Lille said households and businesses which generated renewable energy through rooftop solar panels were now able to feed excess electricity back into the grid.