NLC Launches Climate Action Map as Free Tool for Cities
by Ken Rosenfeld
 Cities can now access a free online tool to help plan and showcase their climate and emissions reduction initiatives. The recent Congress of Cities and Exposition in San Antonio marked the official U.S. launch of the global initiative, Climate Action Map (www.ClimateActionMap.org). NLC is serving as the U.S. national partner organization.
The user-friendly website provides a global online platform for cities to place projects on the site’s map, essentially building a visually-appealing, virtual database. From green buildings to wind farms to LED streetlights, an endless variety of successful projects and policies are contained on the site. Local governments stand to benefit from sharing ideas with other cities, while also gaining a tool to graphically represent their climate programs to their own communities.
Climate Action Map was created to communicate to a global audience the thousands of local climate initiatives underway around the world. The mission of the site is to educate, inform and inspire governments at all levels, while also informing individual communities and the private sector.
The initiative was founded by Local Government Denmark — the membership association for Danish municipalities — along with the nonprofit organization Baltic Sea Solutions. Climate Action Map was exhibited in June in Copenhagen, Denmark, during the Local Government Climate Change Leadership Summit, a significant preliminary event leading up to this month’s United Nations climate change negotiations. A delegation from NLC participated at the June meeting and was impressed by the website and its potential.
“We were absolutely wowed when we saw the map exhibited in Copenhagen,” said outgoing NLC President Kathleen Novak, mayor of Northglenn, Colo. “We knew immediately that local officials would find this useful, and that we had to find a way to make this tool available to cities in the U.S.”
Local governments apply for the free user accounts, which are needed to upload information, and each municipality is responsible for what is presented on the site. Cities have complete discretion as to what projects they want to post, what level of information they want to include, and who manages their process. In addition to generating an icon on the map, cities can post relevant details, photos, video and links, as well as contact information for any appropriate public or private participants in the project.
U.S. user accounts are available exclusively to NLC direct member cities for the first year that the site is online, after which it will be opened up to all U.S. jurisdictions. Anyone can access and search the site at www.ClimateActionMap.org.
“This is an exciting project, and elected officials have already been expressing a tremendous level of interest,” said NLC Executive Director Donald J. Borut. “This should be a very powerful tool for local governments, and it will reinforce that cities have been the leaders and the innovators in the U.S. in addressing climate change.”
At the Congress of Cities, attendees had several opportunities to see the map in person. Anders Riel Muller, the project manager at Climate Action Map, exhibited the site at the NLC Member Services Area in the exhibit hall, and also demonstrated the site at a workshop session and in a presentation to the NLC Board of Directors.
“The feedback from our presence at the Congress of Cities was overwhelmingly positive,” said Muller. “We are honored to welcome NLC as a national partner in this global effort, and we are excited to be working with U.S. cities on this key challenge of the 21st century.”
In addition to NLC’s participation, the United Nations Human Settlements Program (UN-HABITAT) recently formalized a partnership that will bring the tool to developing nations around the world. Already, the map represents multiple cities in North America, South America, Africa, Europe and Asia. In the U.S., Phoenix and Greensburg, Kan., were the first on the map, and they were soon joined by Savannah, Ga., which inserted its first project while at the Congress of Cities.
The next step for Climate Action Map will be a display at the United Nations COP-15 climate change meeting in Copenhagen, where it will be seen by thousands of individuals from around the world.
Details: To learn more, or to get started putting a city “on the map,” go to www.ClimateActionMap.org or visit the sustainability topic page on the NLC website, www.nlc.org.
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