Ecocity Melbourne 2017

Cities at the heart of action

Climate Chance was present at the Ecocity Global Summit 2017 and co- organised several of the Summit’s sessions. This event which took place from the 12th to the 14th July 2017 attracted around 1,000 participants to Melbourne- Australia with very positive feedback on the quality of the sessions. The nearly 100 sessions generated a lot of discussion and interest during the 3 day Summit. The Eco – City sessions organised by Climate Chance were very well attended, in particular the plenary session, » Cities and Civic Soceity Are Accelerating Climate Change Action ».

This summit was also an occassion to exchange words with Al Gore who presented global climate change challenges and the role of cities in this context for Ecocity 2017. Ronan Dantec, President of Climate Chance also participated in the round table talk  » Putting into Practice the Paris Agreement and the ambition of its construction » with Al Gore.

The speech of the Ronan Dantec, the President of the Climate Chance Association

In his introduction, Ronan Dantec emphasised the role of non – state actors and stressed the fact that « In concrete terms, it is the non – state actors who are doing the ground work. » During the course of this plenary session, Climate Chance had the occassion to explore key actions which non – state actors can put in place in order to speed up progress on climate change issues, achieve the objectives of the Paris Agreement and generate rapid progress in creating resilient cities and societies with a carbon neutral footprint.

A diversity of non-state actors

The session gathered together an importantly diverse range of non – state actors and local experts among which Ian Hunter, Minister for Climate Change from the Government of Southern Australia as well as the Director of ICLEI Oceania and the Director of the Alliance of Carbon Neutral Cities, a representative of environmental NGOs (Climate Action Network Australia), a representative from the Private Sector (ICC), a representative of the indigenous community. Also present was Mr Yogesh Punja, High – Commissioner representing the Fijian Presidency at COP23.

A variety of themes

Some other sessions were co -organised and presided over by Ronan Dantec, President of Climate Chance and by Bernard Soulage, Secretary General of Climate Chance and focusing on diverse important subjects such as:

– Access to financial assistance for non – state actors, with the support of the Global Covenant of Majors for Climate and Energy, a session in which amongst others, Kevin Austin, Deputy Director General of C40, Debra Roberts, Climate Change Advisor for ICLEI, Simon Richardson, Mayor of the city of Byron Bay and member of the Global Covenant of Majors for Climate and Energy participated.
– Sustainable building and construction, with the support of the Global Alliance for Building and Construction, with the participation of the Green Building Council of Australia, of the Sustainable Development Solutions Network, of UNEP, of US Green Building, of Climate Works Australia and of Zenata Ecocity, Morocco.
– To plan and construct new Eco – cities, featuring the new Eco – City Zenata, currently under construction in Morocco.
– Sustainable urban transport, with the participation of Yarra Trams, Keolis, The French Transport Authority, The University of Melbourne and the Government of Victoria State, Australia.

Photos