Paris and Los Angeles to work together on sustainability, inclusiveness and innovation
Following the joint awarding of the Olympic Games 2024 and 2028 to Paris and Los Angeles respectively, the two cities have chosen to strengthen their already close ties by cooperating on a number of key global issues.
Attending the inaugural Together4Climate event in Paris on 22-23 October, in the presence of IOC President Thomas Bach, the cities’ mayors, Anne Hidalgo (Paris) and Eric Garcetti (Los Angeles), signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on Olympic cooperation.
As a result, Paris and Los Angeles will seek to build on their relationship to work closely with each other and share best practices in the areas of sustainability, inclusiveness and innovation.
“Mayor Hidalgo and I are united in our belief that the Olympic Games are defined by inspiration and transformation,” said Garcetti. “Our Games are an opportunity to work together and to demonstrate that by addressing our global challenges at the local level, we can find sustainable solutions that create jobs, improve public health and grow our economies.”
Organised by the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group, Together4Climate was attended by mayors and businesses from around the world, and invited them to discuss how to tackle climate change effectively and bring the Paris Agreement goals to fruition.
At the end of the event, Hidalgo, Garcetti and the 10 other mayors who sit on the C40 steering committee signed the C40 Fossil-Fuel-Free Streets Declaration, which sets out a series of ambitious targets relating to climate change, air pollution and improving quality of life.
Our Games are an opportunity to work together and to demonstrate that by addressing our global challenges at the local level, we can find sustainable solutions that create jobs, improve public health and grow our economies.
The declaration’s 12 signatories have pledged to make their cities largely zero emission by 2030, an objective that Tokyo, the host city of the Olympic Games 2020, is also working towards.
The Japanese capital’s governor, Yuriko Koike, was also present at the meeting of the steering committee. Speaking afterwards, she announced an initiative that will ensure Tokyo is free of carbon dioxide emissions over four days at the beginning and the end of the Games.
Mayor Koike added that Tokyo will showcase its efforts to become a fully sustainable city and to create a lasting Olympic legacy for future generations. “Hand in hand with the C40 cities, Tokyo will devote its energies to finding solutions to the environmental issues we all share in order to benefit our planet and our children,” she pledged.