Our Activities

The way the world heats its buildings uses fossil fuel in an unsustainable way. By providing the methods, data, and tools to enable more sophisticated thermal energy system planning rapidly and cheaply, ICLEI accelerates the multi-government and stakeholder dialogues in Europe and beyond on decarbonizing heating and cooling in an integrated energy system.

ICLEI enables the mainstreaming of the prosumer phenomenon into the European Energy Union, supporting citizen participation, inclusiveness and transparency and most of all to contribute to a sustainable energy transition for Europe through decentralized approaches towards 2030 and 2050.

The Procura+ East Asia Green Procurement Network aims to accelerate climate and environmental actions by equipping local governments and public authorities in East Asia with advanced knowledge and skills to upscale green and sustainable procurement practices at the local level. Through Procura+ East Asia, participating local authorities will be equipped with GPP approaches and tools via training programs, and will be provided with access to expert guidance on formulating local green specifications and procurement strategies, as well as tender advice on targeted climate and environmental issues. Participants will also have various opportunities to showcase their successful stories and achievements in green procurement on the international stage by participating in forums/workshops, the Procura+ Award, and publishing case studies on the Procura+ Online Platform. The project connects public authorities, solution providers and advocacy in the region to collectively mainstream green procurement practices at the local level, and promote advanced GPP knowledge and experiences for peer learning and exchange internationally.

Procura+ is a network of European public authorities and regions that connect, exchange and act on sustainable and innovation procurement. The network has 45 participating public authorities from 16 European countries. ICLEI offers the Procura+ participants a range of activities and resources to advance their sustainable public procurement work, including recognition through the Procura+ Awards; a city twinning program to facilitate staff exchanges; a platform to share plans and publicize successes; education and professional development opportunities; and the Procura+ manual, an accessible guide supporting public authorities in successfully implementing sustainable public procurement.

Recognizing that cities play an important role in leading the way to achieve carbon neutrality in the second half of this century, namely the goals of the Paris Agreement, ICLEI supports cities and regions laying out their vision on a sustainable society in 2050. The declaration lays out a vision for cities leading up to 2050 and encourages cities around the world to join Kyoto in cultivating a culture of sustainable cities that is in balance with the local and global environment.

ICLEI is one of organizers of the Global Corporate Sustainability Forum which brings together organizations, institutions and academia and features diverse and engaging activities. The implementation of corporate sustainability initiatives is one of the main activities that are now expected from the international business community, not only for their own long-term interests but for the world’s common interests. To bridge the gap and open the dialogue between public and private sectors on sustainability in Asia, ICLEI will host a parallel session on Cities Initiatives during the opening day of Global Corporate Sustainability Forum, in cooperation with the Organizer, Chinese Taipei Institute for Sustainable Energy (TAISE), ICLEI Member Cities in Chinese Taipei and other local partners.

Building upon ICLEI´s commitment to engage in the NDC Partnership and as the first associate member, ICLEI created a modular approach to addresses the vertical integration of NDC implementation and investment plans, outlining the contribution of local and regional governments in the NDCs. ICLEI’s participation is structured in four parts: coordinating a multilevel action working group (MAWG); knowledge products and tools; country engagement for developing Partnership Plans (PPs), working with countries wanting to join the NDCP; and project management and coordination with a range of partners.

ICLEI provides detailed guidance and practice-oriented resources to technical staff through an open access, online, low emission development platform. The Solutions Gateway is an online resource platform for local and regional governments where they will be able to find relevant Low Emissions Development (LED) Solutions for their cities. The platform contains sectoral and cross-sectoral packages of activities, structured along local government responsibilities and spheres of influence, to support cities in the development of low-emission strategies, plans, and projects. The Solutions Gateway contents are based on proven technologies and practices, distilled into Solutions and Solution Packages which are drafted and peer-reviewed by experts of the respective field.

To achieve the goals of the OPN on SPP the following activities are carried out: Support SPP implementation by assisting procuring entities and procurement practitioners at local, regional, and national levels; Initiate enabling conditions for stimulating change in international sectoral markets through procurement; Advocate and mobilise political leadership and support for sustainable procurement; Support countries in demonstrating the public value (economic, environmental, social) of sustainable procurement implementation.

CITYFOOD accelerates local and regional government action on sustainable and resilient city-region food systems by combining networking with technical expertise through training and policy guidance and facilitating local and regional engagement in international discourse.

The network promotes food security, social inclusion, economic development and environmental resource management by combining networking with training, policy guidance and technical expertise on city-region food systems worldwide.