Joburg nominated for top global green awards

30 September 2016

 

The City of Johannesburg has once again been nominated for the prestigious C40 Cities Awards and will, as a result, be featured in the highly regarded global publication called Cities100.

 

The nomination for the 2016 awards was announced by C40 Cities Executive Director Mark Watts earlier this week.

“I am delighted to [announce] that the awards selection committee has selected the Joburg Biogas-Energy Programme in the Clean Energy category as a finalist,” said Watts.

“In addition, [Johannesburg’s] Biogas-Energy Programme ... has also been selected to be showcased in the Cities100, a joint publication of C40 and Sustaina,” Watts said.

“We received 160 high-quality applications from 75 cities showcasing a range of important, innovative policies and programmes that reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improve resilience to climate change. Our 2016 jury panel is currently reviewing all the finalist projects to determine the 2016 winners, which will be revealed at an awards ceremony at the Palacio de Mineria in Mexico City on 1 December 2016."

The awards, sponsored by US-based Bloomberg Philanthropies and Hong Kong-based green energy company BYD, coincide with the C40 Mayors’ Summit to be held between 30 November and 2 December 2016.

In December 2015, Johannesburg was one of 10 winners in the C40 Cities Awards for its leadership in tackling climate change through its successful Green Bond initiative.

Tiaan Ehlers, the City’s Executive Director: Environment and Infrastructure Services, said Joburg was excited about making it for the fourth time as a finalist in this prestigious global competition.

“It would be an even bigger achievement to win an award for the second time after winning the award in the Finance and Development category last year in Paris.

“We are also extremely excited about the City’s Biogas Programme because this demonstrates the City’s commitment towards addressing emissions and combatting climate change and to set an example within the broader City community. The programme demonstrates specific climate change benefits but also co-benefits in terms of how the City can change its operations to serve socio-economic needs,” said Ehlers.

This was at the third annual C40 Cities Awards in Paris, France, during the COP21 climate negotiations. The other winners, from 33 finalists, were Cape Town, Boston, Rotterdam, Stockholm, Vancouver, Washington DC, Wuhan, New York and Nanjing.

They each demonstrated exceptional innovation and ambition to build low-carbon and climate-resilient urban communities in various sectors.

Johannesburg’s Green Bond award, in the Finance and Development category, was in recognition of the City’s over-subscribed investment initiative that raised R1.5-billion to fund programmes to mitigate climate change. C40 Cities received more than 200 applications from 94 cities for the 2015 awards.

Johannesburg has been nominated every year since the C40 Cities Awards were launched in 2013.