Rio De Janeiro Mayor Paes Elected As New C40 Chair

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Mayor Bloomberg To Stay On As President Of The C40 Board

NEW YORK, Nov. 26, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Today the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group (C40) announced that Rio de Janeiro Mayor Eduardo Paes has been elected to succeed New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg as the new Chair of the C40 Steering Committee. Mayor Bloomberg will stay on as President of the C40 Board.

The Steering Committee is made up of Berlin, Buenos Aires, Hong Kong, Houston, Jakarta, Johannesburg, London, New York City, Seoul, and Tokyo.

As C40 Chair, Mayor Paes will lead the strategic direction of the organisation and build upon Mayor Bloomberg's legacy of establishing the C40 as the world's leading climate action organisation.  As President of the Board, Mayor Bloomberg will oversee day-to-day operations of the organisation's professional staff and serve as a key counselor to both the new chair and the organisation.

"This is truly an honour and I am very excited about carrying forward the organisation and building on Mayor Bloomberg's legacy," said Mayor Paes. "Cities are leading the way in the fight against global climate change, and Rio – like New York City and all of our members – are on the front lines. As the world becomes more urbanized – particularly in Brazil and Latin America – our work going forward will be critical to creating a healthier, safer planet for all of our citizens today and for future generations."  

At Mayor Paes' request, Mayor Bloomberg has agreed to stay on as President of the C40 Board after his tenure. Bloomberg Philanthropies will remain a key funder of the organisation.

"Mike Bloomberg has my gratitude for the extraordinary work he has done in taking C40 forward. He took the organisation and really ramped it up, injecting some of his business brilliance and spirit, opening doors and raising C40 to become the leading place where cities are working to address climate change in a way which also delivers economic opportunities and make cities even better places to live," said Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, "I have come to know Eduardo Paes well through both our cities hosting the Olympic and Paralympic Games. Eduardo is a dynamic, creative, and strategic leader. He has had great success in Rio and has been playing a vital role with C40.  I look forward to him leading the Steering Committee and building on Mike's achievements."

Mayor Bloomberg's tenure as Chair of C40 has been defined by an unwavering commitment to building a professional organisation and establishing measurable and uniform benchmarks for success, as well as expanding knowledge-sharing between cities and partner organisations with similar priorities. As a result, we now know that C40 Cities have taken more than 5,000 climate actions over the last five years. When fully implemented, these actions will cut greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 248 million tons worldwide by 2020 - the equivalent to the total GHG emissions of Argentina and Portugal combined. These actions have the potential to reduce over 1 billion tonnes by 2030, which is the equivalent of the GHG emissions of Mexico and Canada combined. 

"Mayor Paes is a determined, focused leader with a clear passion for his city, his constituents, and the mission of our C40 organisation," said Mayor Bloomberg. "At the 2012 Rio+C40 Summit in his home city, he rightly stated that the future of climate change starts with cities. As chairman of C40, I have no doubt that he will continue to propel actions at the city level to the forefront of the global conversation on climate change – and I am honored that he asked me stay on to provide counsel to ensure the organisation continues its groundbreaking work."

Under Mayor Paes' leadership, Rio de Janeiro has embraced both proven technologies and innovative sustainability solutions. He has overseen the implementation of a Bus Rapid Transit system that will increase the high capacity transportation use from an initial level of 18 percent to 63 percent by 2016; Mayor Paes has also inaugurated the Rio Operations Center, a digital nerve center of the city in which critical services – from waste management to emergency response and traffic control – are monitored to improve the city's efficiency and emergency response. For its efforts on urbanizing the favelas of Rio, the city has recently won the C40 & Siemens City Climate Leadership Awards in the category "Sustainable Communities".

While readying itself to host the world's largest sporting events, the World Cup in 2014 and the Summer Olympics in 2016, Rio de Janeiro is investing heavily in transportation and urban infrastructure, a once in a lifetime opportunity to develop sustainable practices that will reduce GHG emissions and strengthen the city's resilience to climate change. Rio's major challenges - transportation, waste management and adaptation to the rise in sea level and extreme weather events - are common to that of many emerging cities worldwide, and the city expects that the sharing of knowledge between cities will produce concrete results in improving the quality of life of citizens. As Chair of C40, Mayor Paes intends to deepen the city collaboration initiated by the Chairs from New York, Toronto and London.

Mayor Paes will assume the chairmanship at the C40 Mayors Summit, in Johannesburg in February 2014. 

About C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group (C40)
The C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group (C40) is a network of large and engaged cities from around the world committed to implementing meaningful and sustainable climate-related actions locally that will help address climate change globally. C40 was established in 2005 and expanded via a partnership in 2006 with President William J. Clinton's Climate Initiative (CCI). The current chair of the C40 is New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg. To learn more about the work of C40 and our Cities, please visit www.c40.org, follow us on Twitter @c40cities and like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/C40Cities

SOURCE C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group (C40)