The C40 has been voted unanimously by the Climate and Clean Air Coalition (CCAC) Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) Initiative partners to act as co-chair alongside the US Department of State and the US Environmental Protection Agency. C40 will replace Environment Canada, which recently concluded its tenure as co-chair and will remain actively engaged in the Initiative.
CCAC MSWI Global Workshop in Sao Paulo, Brazil on the margins of the ISWA World Congress, Sept. 8-11, 2014
The Climate and Clean Air Coalition is a global partnership of countries, international organizations, NGOs, and the private sector, seeking to rapidly reduce some of the worst climate pollutants like black carbon, methane, and HFCs, known as short-lived climate pollutants (SLCPs).
In its first three years, the Coalition’s Waste Initiative has grown and achieved global recognition. Notably, at the UN Secretary General’s Climate Summit in New York in September 2014, the CCAC MSW Initiative announced its plan to scale up its cities program. The initiative will support 50 cities committed to developing and implementing quantifiable plans of action to reduce SLCPs from the waste sector by 2020, and to expand this collaboration to at least 150 cities by 2020. These cities can in turn become champions, mentoring even more cities on how to reduce SLCPs and improve solid waste systems. Collectively, these actions will improve health, economic development and local air quality in cities around the world.
C40 cities including Addis Ababa, Dar es Salaam, Dhaka, Jakarta, Lagos, Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo, and Stockholm are participating in the Initiative and achieving results, working with other cities and technical partners through C40’s waste management network to:
- improve their waste management systems,
- divert organics from landfills,
- improve long-term and financial planning,
- eliminate open burning and non-sanitary landfill disposal and
- produce valuable by-products through organics and food waste treatment
After receiving technical support from the USEPA, the city of Rio de Janeiro has improved its leachate management for better environmental performance and energy efficiency. It is now implementing a program to optimize collection routes to reduce fuel consumption and GHG emissions and procure hybrid electric diesel trucks for waste collection and transport.
Under C40’s leadership, the Coalition’s Waste Initiative is set to improve its governance structure to facilitate decision-making; enhance its strategic provision of support and resources to cities and countries. C40 aims to maximize GHG and SLCP reductions and drive the uptake of good practices by local and national governments. It will also help to implement a scale-up plan to engage technical partners and cities to achieve the Initiative’s ambitious goals and commitments,
To learn more about the Climate and Clean Air Coalition’s Municipal Solid Waste Initiative, click here.
Find out about the Initiative’s launch at the UN Rio+20 conference here.