The Carbon Disclosure
Project (CDP) today announced the launch of the new CDP Cities
program, which will provide a system for cities worldwide to report
on their greenhouse gas emissions and climate-related
strategies.

CDP Cities, in partnership with the C40 and the Clinton Climate
initiative (CCI)*, has asked the largest cities in the world
committed to tackling climate change - the 40 member cities and 19
affiliate member cities of the C40 - to voluntarily measure and
report to CDP so the cities can proactively manage risks, reduce
carbon and further adopt strategies that safeguard the future of
cities. London, Toronto and New York have already agreed to report
their carbon emissions data to CDP.

“Cities play an essential and leading
role in accelerating solutions to climate change and C40 cities are
already making a massive impact,” said David Miller, Mayor of
Toronto and chair of C40.

“CDP will provide a reporting platform that allows C40 cities to
track their progress on reducing greenhouse gas emissions and share
that critical data with each other and around the globe.”

Major organizations such as Autodesk, lead sponsor of CDP
Cities, as well as Microsoft and Sun Life Financial are supporting
this new program. “The cities of tomorrow are being shaped today by
governments, businesses and citizens. To create cities that support
a better quality of life while minimizing environmental impact,
today’s designers need a clear picture of the impact of climate
change,” said Jay Bhatt, senior vice president of AEC solutions at
Autodesk.

The Clinton Climate Initiative, a
program of the William J. Clinton Foundation, is the delivery
partner of the C40 and will, through its network of City Directors,
assist C40 cities on the CDP disclosure process.

“We are delighted to work with the Carbon Disclosure Project to
assist in developing a standardized reporting platform for climate
change-related information. Autodesk’s design software will help
city managers better understand their existing assets, allowing
planners to develop strategy for improving the urban
environment.”

CDP Cities is today releasing a new report entitled ‘href=”https://www.cdproject.net/en-US/Programmes/Documents/Case-for-City-Disclosure.pdf”
target=”_blank”>The Case for City Disclosure’, written by
Accenture. It details how standard disclosure from local
governments can help cities share best practice, manage risk,
increase operational effectiveness and cost savings, attract
investment, foster innovation and ultimately lead to safer, more
prosperous cities.

“New York City has tracked greenhouse gas emissions with a
detailed inventory - that we make public - since 2006, and we are
already seeing real reductions in our carbon emissions,” said
Michael Bloomberg, Mayor of New York City.

“We have to keep the pressure on to continue our progress. The
C40’s partnership with CDP will ensure that all member cities have
a reliable platform to report emissions. We will never meet the
ambitious goals we set as an organization without solid data to
measure our progress; as I’ve always said: if you can’t measure it,
you can’t manage it.”

Boris Johnson, Mayor of London, said: “We know cities are the
largest producers of carbon emissions, but it is vital that these
outputs are quantified and in the public domain in order to track
our progress in reducing them. London’s city government is already
committed to disclosing a range of data, not just with regard to
climate change, to help catalyze change to the benefit of
residents. We are happy to continue this as part of our work with
the C40.”

The CDP Cities initiative continues to expand CDP’s global
climate change data system developed with Accenture, Microsoft and
SAP. Disclosing information through CDP’s standard reporting
platform is already seen as best practice by thousands of companies
around the world.

This same CDP disclosure process was used successfully in a 2008
pilot of 18 cities in the United States. This pilot highlighted how
action on climate change is, in most cases, at an early stage and
so the opportunities ahead to reduce emissions and seize future
opportunities are considerable.

CDP Cities allows cities to report both quantitative and
qualitative climate change data. Cities can therefore report their
greenhouse gas inventories along with contextual information about
the unique characteristics of individual cities. This will help
cities and a wide range of associated stakeholders to better
understand the risks and opportunities associated with climate
change.

“CDP has long been a key system through which businesses can
evaluate their ability to tackle climate change,” said CDP’s
executive chairman Paul Dickinson. “With cities at the forefront of
our global response to climate change, it is critical that they
have access to the same proven process which can help them to
reduce carbon, improve operational efficiency, attract investment
and increase clean tech innovations.”

Source: www.cdproject.net