Major cities must unite against climate change: Paris mayor

By Park Sae-jin Posted : June 17, 2014, 10:10 Updated : June 17, 2014, 10:10

 

Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo urged the world's major cities to unite in the fight against climate change.

Stressing that half the world's population is now urbanized, Hidalgo noted that cities are already responsible for 80 percent of greenhouse gas emissions and the consumption of three quarters of Earth's energy resources.

"Major cities must unite to develop industrial bids to tackle concretely the dangers of climate change and the massive loss of biodiversity," Hidalgo said.

She was speaking during a sustainable urbanization conference at U.N. headquarters in New York late last month.

Paris will host a major U.N. climate conference in late 2015, when the world's nations are due to sign a global climate pact.

In her speech, the mayor said it is "very important that major cities get together and commit to sharing best practices as part of a dialogue to speed up the ecological transition of our economies."

She pointed to a public housing building in Paris "heated for free" by energy generated by computer microprocessors performing calculations.

The French capital is focusing on pushing green construction norms "very far" for new buildings and on non-polluting public transportation," Hidalgo said.

By Ruchi Singh
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