The Malmö Summit at the ICLEI World Congress 2021 – 2022 has been held with over 800 representatives from more than 60 countries in Malmö, Sweden on 11-13 May. 

Hosted by ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability and the City of Malmö, an international three-day congress has brought together local and regional governments, urban practitioners, researchers and stakeholders to exchange with and inspire one another on the best practices in local sustainable development.

Themed as Sustainability. Together., the event highlighted how local governments can put equity at the center of urban sustainability. 

At the summit, sessions focused on strategies towards: a climate neutral future, resilient and healthy communities in harmony with nature and equitable and inclusive communities.

Meanwhile, you can find videos on Circular City, Climate Neutral Building, Equitable and Inclusive City and Low Emission Transport, as part of the six short films produced by the City of Malmö.

Image © Pontus Olsson

Sustainable finance and Innovation

In order for cities, towns and regions to achieve these objectives, key enablers for action need to be leveraged, stated the event. The Malmö Summit gave special attention to two of those enablers: sustainable finance and innovation.

ICLEI’s Leadership Shared Accomplishments in Line with Strategic Vision and Action Plan

At the virtual launch of ICLEI World Congress 2021-2022 in April 2021, ICLEI Membership adopted the ICLEI Malmö Commitment and Strategic Vision (2021-2027) along with the ICLEI Malmö Action Plan 2021 - 2024, which consists of 350+ concrete actions, projects and initiatives in the amount of 25M EUR per year that ICLEI is implementing together with its members worldwide.

On 10 May 2022, the ICLEI Global Executive Committee convened in-person in Malmö for their 2022 annual meeting and were pleased to report on the work over 2500+ ICLEI Members and network cities have done during these challenging times and are projected to complete over the next three years including:

• 500+ declared a climate emergency
• 250+ committed to ambitious climate action by 2030 and climate neutrality before 2050
• 200+ account and report their climate action via the ICLEI-led Clearpath and HEAT+softwares
• 1000+ practicing transparency and accountability by reporting at CDP-ICLEI Track
• 250+ committed to acting in the “Cities/Regions with Nature” platforms
• 50+ advancing on circular economy
• 100+ committed to sustainable procurement
• 75+ delivering sustainable mobility
• 300+ developing resilience, climate adaptation and disaster risk reduction plans
• 600+ incorporating equity into their urban sustainable development actions

ICLEI’s Global Executive committee commended the actions of these pioneering cities and hope they serve as inspiration to all local and regional governments as they further determine their role in addressing the climate and nature emergencies.

The Malmö Commitment adopted by 8 cities, towns and regions, opening the call for further supporters

Under the leadership of the Mayor of Malmö and ICLEI Global Executive Committee First Vice President, Katrin Stjernfeldt Jammeh, the Malmö Commitment was officially launched, further developing ICLEI’s commitment to equity and people-centered sustainable development. This commitment empowers local and regional governments to prioritize all people and social equity at the core of local sustainable development. 

The Mayor of Malmö was joined by the following early adopters who will share their knowledge and best practices with the supporting cities:

Early Adopters:

• Katrin Stjernfeldt Jammeh, Mayor, City of Malmö, Sweden; First Vice President, ICLEI - Local Governments for Sustainability
• Susan Aitken, Leader, Glasgow City Council, United Kingdom
• Mauricio Vila Dosal, Governor, State of Yucatán, Mexico
• Sharon Dijksma, Mayor, City of Utrecht, Netherlands
• Sebastião Melo, Mayor, Municipality of Porto Alegre, Brazil
• Carlos Marín Correa, Mayor, City of Manizales, Colombia
• Emilio Jatón, Mayor, City of Santa Fe, Argentina
• Leslie Pool, Councilmember, City of Austin, USA

Supporting Local Governments:

• Frank Cownie, Mayor, City of Des Moines, USA; President, ICLEI - Local Governments for Sustainability
• Renán Barrera Concha, Mayor, Municipality of Mérida, Mexico
• Geraldo Julio De Mello Filho, Secretary of State of Economic Development, State of Pernambuco, Brazil
• Isabella de Roldão, Deputy Mayor, City of Recife, Brazil

Image © Karl Hörnfeldt

The City of Malmö becomes MCR2030 Resilience Hub

Malmö has become the latest European city and the second in Sweden to be unveiled as a Resilience Hub by the UN Oce for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) and its partners for its proactive eorts to prepare for and mitigate climate-related hazards. Read more here.

Google.org announces 10M USD contribution to ICLEI Action Fund

Sustainable cities are a growing interest area for Google, and ICLEI is a long-standing, trusted grantee of Google.org. To show their continued support, Google.org will provide additional funding to the ICLEI Action Funds. 

The ICLEI EU office will be supported with 7M EUR and the ICLEI USA office with 3M USD. With these two funds combined, Google.org will be providing over 10M USD in funding to ICLEI. The ICLEI Action Fund aims to partner with cities by funding projects that are data-driven, highly-replicable, and action-oriented.

For the EU fund, please find more information, and to apply visit.

Image © Susan Q. Yin

Update on Global Research Action & City Research Innovation Agendas

Over 100 urban sustainability researchers, innovators, local and regional practitioners, political leaders, and scientists gathered at the World Maritime University for ICLEI’s 6th Research Symposium in its 32-year history to co-create actionable knowledge for science-informed decision making to support subnational governments in their transition toward further sustainability.

An update to the 2018 Global Research Action Agenda on Cities and Climate Change Science (GRAA) was released as Findings from Innovate4Cities 2021 and Update to the Global Research and Action Agenda. This document details the research, policy, public discussions, recommendations and research gaps as the global research and action agenda for cities and climate change science. 

An update to the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy (GCoM) City Research Agenda was also launched as the City Research and Innovation Agenda – a response for city practice and city leadership to the updated GRAA. GCoM’s City Research and Innovation Agenda identifies and tackles the data, information, and technology gaps that cities have prioritized and, if addressed, would drive science-based, technology-driven, replicable sustainable action and implementation at the scale the world needs and cities demand. 

These two agendas are key outcomes of the Innovate4Cities 2021 Conference that was co-hosted by GCoM and UN-Habitat, co-sponsored by the IPCC, with ICLEI as one of the core partners.

The Research Symposium was co-organized by the City of Malmö, the World Maritime University (WMU) – Sasakawa Global Ocean Institute, and ICLEI.

ICLEI USA announced Cities Race to Resilience

ICLEI USA announced its support of U.S. local and regional governments in the Cities Race to Resilience, a global initiative of the United Nations that aims to build the resilience of four billion vulnerable people globally to climate risks. With ICLEI USA support, four communities will conduct climate risk and vulnerability assessments and implement high-impact resilience actions:

• Travis County, TX
• Nashville-Davidson County Metropolitan Government, TN
• City of Oberlin, OH
• City of Olympia, WA

Transformative Action Program(TAP) Launches 6th Call for Proposals

Led by ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability and supported by 16 partners, the Transformative Actions Program (TAP) is a global initiative to help local and regional governments transform their net-zero and resilient development infrastructure concepts into mature, robust and bankable projects ready for financing and implementation.

Projects are mobilized through annual calls. Those that show high transformative potential get increased visibility to potential investors, and are connected to project preparation facilities and financial partners.

The Call for Proposals is now open through 15 December 2022.

World Architecture Community is official media partner of the ICLEI World Congress 2021 - 2022.

Top image © Pontus Olsson.

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