Put your city on the map in WWF’s 2014 Global Earth Hour City Challenge
May 3, 2013 – WWF-Canada invites Canadian municipalities to join cities in 14 countries around the world in their bid to be the world’s next Earth Hour Capital.
City recruitment kicks off this week for WWF’s Earth Hour City Challenge, a competition designed to reward cities making substantial long-term efforts to combat global warming. This year, an international jury* crowned the City of Vancouver the 2013 global winner, out of six competing countries, for its outstanding holistic and strategic approach to climate change.
Green Canadian cities will compete against previous city participants in Italy, India, Norway, Sweden and the U.S. – and new challengers, Brazil, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Mexico, the Netherlands, South Korea and Indonesia.
“If we’re to avoid the worst impacts of climate change, the world needs ambitious climate action now,” says Josh Laughren, WWF-Canada Climate and Energy Director.
“We’re proud the City of Vancouver is the first global Earth City winner – proof that leadership on climate change can be driven at the local level and that Canadian cities can play, and are playing, a crucial role in reducing emissions and demonstrating how climate change action can support healthy, prosperous communities.”
The Challenge
Cities will be asked to register their data on carbonn Cities Climate Registry (cCCR), an internationally recognized carbon reporting platform, managed by ICLEI, Local Governments for Sustainability. Reporting is open from May to October 2013. Strategies will be evaluated by an international jury and in March 2014, the city with the highest overall score will be awarded the title Global Earth Hour Capital.
One national winner will also be selected from competing countries as Earth Hour Capital of its respective country and entered to win the online popular vote for People’s Choice Award (also won by Vancouver). Last year, Vancouver, New Delhi, Forli, Oslo, Uppsala, San Francisco were named Earth Hour Capital winners.
In 2013, 66 cities from six countries participated in the first international Earth Hour City Challenge by reporting their commitments, performance, completed or ongoing actions, as well as climate action plans.
Earth Hour City Challenge is run by WWF in collaboration with ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability and the Swedish Postcode Lottery.
Notes to Editors
*Earth Hour City Challenge Jury 2013
Gino van Begin, Secretary General of ICLEI
Martha Delgado, General Director of the Secretariat of the Global Cities Covenant on Climate
Amanda Eichel, Director of Initiatives and City Support, C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group
Christiana Figueres, UNFCCC Executive Secretary
Simon Giles, Senior Principal Intelligent Cities, Accenture Global, Accenture
Dan Hoornweg, Professor and Jeff Boyce Research Chair, University of Ontario Institute of Technology
Pietro Laureano, architect and urban planner, UNESCO consultant
Conor Riffle, Head of CDP Cities
For more information, please contact:
Contact for cities: Kamil Alam, Outreach Coordinator, Earth Hour City Challenge,
WWF-Canada Tel: 416.489.4567 ext. 7336 Email: [email protected]
Contact for media: Jo Anne Walton, Communications Specialist, Earth Hour City Challenge, WWF-Canada Tel: 604.694.6653 Email: [email protected]
www.earthhour.org/citychallenge or follow us on Facebook and Twitter @EHcitychallenge