In 2022, the C40 Cities Bloomberg Philanthropies Awards will recognize ten municipalities around the world, including the African cities of Addis Ababa in Ethiopia and Freetown in Sierra Leone, for their initiatives in sustainable development.
Sharing green urban strategies and setting ambitious climate goals was the focus of the recent World Mayors’ Summit in Buenos Aires, Argentina. During this event, ten municipal projects on climate resilience, including two in Africa, received the “C40 Cities Bloomberg Philanthropies Awards”, jointly awarded by the global network of local elected officials, the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group, and the non-governmental organization (NGO) Bloomberg Philanthropies, based in New York, United States of America.
Among the winners is the municipality of Freetown in Sierra Leone for its digital tree tracking system. The system helps anticipate heat waves, which during the dry season do not spare the biodiversity of this city of 1.2 million people.
The jury chaired by Supriya Sahu, Principal Secretary of the Department of Environment, Climate Change and Forests of Tamil Nadu in India also awarded Addis Ababa. The capital of Ethiopia has distinguished itself since 2021 by “its impressive efforts” in sustainable waste management, particularly through composting and recycling of household waste.
A competition with climate issues
In the competition, 70 cities presented their climate innovations in five categories such as “united to clean the air we breathe” and “united to build climate resilience” or “united to innovate”. “The awards celebrate the adaptation efforts of mayors and encourage friendly competition among cities that support the global ambition to invest in a greener future,” said Sadiq Khan, C40’s acting president and mayor of London, England.
China and Brazil, respectively the world’s first and eighth largest polluters, were also honored for the project to phase out coal in the domestic heating system in Beijing and for the design of an agroecological school menu to combat food insecurity in the metropolis of São Paulo.
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The awards, also supported by the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy (GCoM), are funded annually by Bloomberg Philanthropies. The NGO invests in 941 cities in 173 countries mainly in the areas of education, environment, art and public health to achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030.
Benoit-Ivan Wansi
