June
16
,
12:30
CEST
CET
/
EDT
EST
16
,
2025
–
Learn from city mayors sharing real-world experiences in achieving energy efficiency.
June
16
,
12:30
CEST
CET
/
EDT
EST
16
,
2025
,
Learn from city mayors sharing real-world experiences in achieving energy efficiency.
Cities as Agents for Change
Today, over half the world’s population lives in cities, and this number is rapidly increasing. By 2050, nearly 70% will live in urban areas, creating a crucial need for secure, efficient, affordable, and sustainable energy solutions.
Sharing Best Practices to Speed Up the Transition
In this micro-learning series, designed specifically for city developers, policymakers, mayors, infrastructure professionals, and companies involved in urban energy systems.
You'll get practical insights directly from city mayors who have successfully implemented energy efficiency through different solutions, such as district heating and cooling. Learn about real-world practices, efficient technologies, financing models, and how cities tackle common obstacles on their journey to energy efficiency and decarbonization.
Subscribe now to access season 2 with mayors from COP30. Check your inbox for the first episode.
Season 2 – Interviews from the UN Climate Conference COP30
We are continuing with insights from mayors at COP30, listening to:
"Malmö was recently ranked as the most sustainable city in Sweden. This journey started already in the early 1990’s – when we needed to develop the city and create new green jobs. In the city development we included green infrastructure – such as heating, cooling, and waste management."
"Cubatão is a city with 120.000 residents close to a big port. Recently, the city made a partnership with a research institute to calculate its greenhouse gas inventory. This is an important step in deciding on next steps in the decarbonization. The city has an industrial profile, and companies are very important actors. Many of them are now transitioning to low carbon emissions."
"We have worked since the 80’s and 90’s with sustainable energy sources such as solar and wind, as well as biogas. We own our utilities, which makes it easier to control the carbon profile, and by 2017 all electricity came from hydro, or solar. In our city, we focus on electrifying homes and business."
"95% of our state is covered in forest that we want to preserve and at the same time invest in to develop the bioeconomy and to generate jobs for our people. Already today, Amapá is carbon negative. We get all our energy from hydrogen, and in the coming years we will develop more renewable energy from solar, wind, and biomass."
Season 1 – Interviews from the Daring Cities Conference
Re-watch insights from mayors at the Daring Cities Conference in Bonn, arranged by ICLEI, Local Governments for Sustainability, listening to:
"For the city of Coral Springs, cooling is a major issue. It has invested in cooling systems for all its buildings and offers grants for residents to repair and maintain their own cooling systems. The city also frames climate change as a resilience issue to gain community buy-in. Grants and rebate programs are available to help residents make sustainable upgrades to their homes."
Here you get to listen to the Mayor of Bonn, a city that has several challenges in establishing energy-efficient heating. Houses were built before energy efficient measures, financing is a challenge, as well as finding trained staff who can work with advising people in the transition.
For the City of Adeleide, the issue isn’t heating, it's cooling. Many homes are poorly insulated, and they are seeing the impact of rising temperatures. The city offers grants to help retrofit houses and install double-glazed windows. This is also a climate justice issue, because it’s the most vulnerable who suffer the most during heatwaves, facing heat stress and limited access to cooling.
Many South African cities have plans developed for increased energy efficiency, and these plans have been developed in a participative manner. Different parts of the city, as well as interest groups such as youth, women, business, and small businesses, have been engaged to make sure that suggestions address the real challenges. Some cities still work on their plans, but most are now at the stage where they need climate finance to realise their plans and actions.
"The things we need to do are to rethink energy efficiency in cities in terms of housing, public transportation, bicycles, shading streets with trees, and making new infrastructure resilient to flooding. We need daring and sustainable cities, but most of all, in Brazil, we need inclusive cities. There has been inequality and marginalization, and by bridging the inequality gap in cities, we also bridge the vulnerability gap. Informal settlements are energy inefficient."
This initiative has been developed together with:
Our joint aim is to share and spread solutions and examples that already exist.
Energy Efficiency can decrease carbon emissions fast, and we aim for implementation at speed and scale!
Changing the language of subtitles
The video above has subtitiles available in 15 different languages (Arabic, Bengali, English, French, German, Hindi, Indonesian, Japanese, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swahili, Swedish and Urdu). You will find the language options when you click the cog wheel symbol and click the Closed Captions option.
Katrin Stjernfeldt Jammeh is the Mayor of Malmö, Sweden, since 2013. Before elected Mayor, she served as Deputy Mayor in charge of education, as well as welfare and security. Mayor Jammeh is currently on the national board of The Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions (SALAR) and the national board of the Swedish Social Democratic Party. She has a strong national voice, representing the collective cities and regions of Sweden and has been ranked as the most influential local politician in Sweden. Internationally, Stjernfeldt Jammeh is the President of ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability, where she leads 2600 cities and regions in sustainable urban development. She is a strong advocate for equitable and human-centred sustainability, and for greater influence and funding at the local level, where the work is being done.
Born on August 15, 1972, César Nascimento is a native of Cubatão. He holds a degree in Business Management and is a certified Electrical Technician. He is married to Janaína Lopes and has three daughters and one granddaughter. He began his political career as a parliamentary advisor in 1997 and was later elected city councilor in 2012, 2016, and received the most votes in 2020. He served as Secretary of Government for the Municipality of Cubatão from 2017 to 2024. He is the first mayor elected as the successor to a Municipal Government focused on quality of life and restoring the self-esteem of the people of Cubatão.
Doctor of Environmental Sciences, Researcher at the Center for Environmental Research - USP, holds a postgraduate degree in Environmental Law, and an MBA in Management Applied to Engineering. He has degrees in Environmental and Sanitary Engineering, Public Management, and Pedagogy. He is an Ambassador for the International Union for Conservation of the World in Latin America - IUCN - UN within the Panorama Program for Planet Conservation. He is a former Secretary of Environment and Climate Security for the Municipality of Guarujá.
Vicki Veenker is the Vice Mayor of Palo Alto and the Vice Chair of the Bay Area Air Quality Management District Board, where she chairs the Policy, Grants and Technology Committee. Vice Mayor Veenker serves on the Board of the Northern California Power Agency and the Santa Clara County Recycling & Waste Reduction Commission. In Palo Alto, Vice Mayor Veenker chairs the Climate Action & Sustainability Committee and the Policy & Services Committee. She also serves on the Executive Board of the Peninsula Division of the League of California Cities. Professionally, Ms. Veenker is a patent and intellectual property attorney. As a partner at international law firm Shearman & Sterling LLP, she founded the Silicon Valley IP group, and previously was a partner at Fish & Neave where she provided pro bono representation to the Natural Resources Defense Council. Today, she leads Veenker Law Offices and Veenker Dispute Resolution.
Current Director-President of the Amapá Research Support Foundation (FAPEAP). Started activities in August 2023. Holds undergraduate, master's, and doctoral degrees in Geography. Completed two postdoctoral fellowships: the first at the University of São Paulo (USP) with a CAPES-Pró/Defesa scholarship in 2015, and the second at the Sorbonne Nouvelle University, Paris 3, with a CNPq/Science Without Borders scholarship in 2016. Between May and September 2019, was a visiting researcher at Brock University, Canada. Experience in the field of Geography, with an emphasis on Political and Regional Geography, working mainly on the following themes: Political Geography, International and Transborder Relations of the countries that make up the Guianas (Brazil, Venezuela, Cooperative Republic of Guyana, Suriname, and France/French Guiana). He created and coordinates the research group Territorial Policies and Development (POTEDES, http://dgp.cnpq.br/dgp/espelhogrupo/5158361004247350) and, since 2013, has been part of the project selection committee of CNRS-OHM/Oyapock. In the area of university management, he was Pro-Rector of Cooperation and Interinstitutional Relations between 04/2013 and 05/2014; Coordinator at UNIFAP of the Science Without Borders program in 2013, and Coordinator of the Master's Program in Border Studies (PPGEF) between 2017 and 2019. Finally, it should be noted that he participated in the organization of thematic editions and the review of texts for numerous geography journals in Brazil and abroad.
Nancy Metayer Bowen is an environmental scientist and long-time Coral Springs resident who was elected to City Commission in 2020 (re-elected 2024) and appointed Vice Mayor in December 2024. As Vice Mayor, she leads efforts to advance climate action, sustainability, and environmental justice, serving on the Environmental Sustainability Committee, helping shape the Coral Springs Sustainability Action Plan, and representing the city on the ICLEI USA Board to drive resilient, equitable local climate solutions.
Katja Dörner took office as Mayor of Bonn on 1 November 2020. Her priorities for Bonn are making the city climate neutral by 2035, advancing sustainable mobility – notably with more bike lanes and a car free inner city, fighting inequalities and promoting affordable housing. Since March 2021, Mayor Dörner has co-chaired the ICLEI Global Executive Committee 2021-2024 portfolio on Climate Action and Low Emission Development.
Dr. Jane Lomax‑Smith, an Australian politician and former pathologist, currently serves as the Lord Mayor of Adelaide, having first held the position from 1997 to 2000 and returning to office on 14 November 2022. As Lord Mayor, she has prioritized heritage-focused urban planning, sustainable development, and civic engagement, championing adaptive reuse housing, advocating for heritage protection, and supporting the city’s volunteers.
Dorah Marema, Head of the Municipal Sustainability Portfolio at the South African Local Government Association (SALGA) since September 2020, has decades of experience working across various sectors, including climate change, renewable energy, gender equity, land rights, and environmental management, through NGOs, government, and international initiatives. In her role at SALGA, she leads municipal-level sustainability by advocating for multilevel climate governance, including piloting “Town Hall COPs” to integrate community voices into national climate policy, promoting just-transition dialogues, green job creation, and capacity-building for local governments to drive equitable, climate-resilient development.
Antonio Francisco da Costa e Silva is Brazil’s Chief International Advisor at the Ministry of Cities, a seasoned diplomat and career Brazilian Foreign Service official educated at Instituto Rio Branco and the Graduate Institute in Geneva. In his current role, he champions multilevel urban climate governance—highlighted by his leadership in forming the LGMA National Coordination Group for COP 30 in Brazil, advocacy for embedding municipal voices in Brazil’s updated NDC, and contributions at global forums such as ICLEI and UN-Habitat to align national climate plans with city-level action.
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ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability is a global network working with more than 2500 local and regional governments committed to sustainable urban development. Active in 125+ countries, we influence sustainability policy and drive local action for zero-emission, nature-based, equitable, resilient, and circular development. Across the world, we bring the latest global knowledge and solutions to the local context.
Alfa Laval is a global supplier of solutions in energy efficiency, clean water, sustainable food, and decarbonized marine transportation. Ever since our corporate journey began 140 years ago, we have challenged conventional thinking on quality, efficiency, and innovation. Alfa Laval products and solutions can enable us, our customers, and societies to meet sustainability goals, boost circular business, and develop sustainable value chains. Every day, we aim to pioneer positive impact.
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