- Mayors Giuseppe Sala of Milan and Virginia Raggi of Rome will co-chair the 2021 Urban 20 (U20) cycle, following the G20 presidency handover from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to the Italian Republic.
Mayors Virginia Raggi of Rome and Giuseppe Sala of Milan will co-chair the fourth Urban 20 cycle set to take place in 2021. Following the transition from the former Chair city of Riyadh to Italian cities, the participating U20 cities will continue to engage with the G20 and commit to working together with national governments to address the most pressing challenges our world is facing, including rising inequalities, the climate emergency and recovering from the crises resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It is an honor for Italy to host the U20 summit, and an exceptional opportunity”, say Milan’s Mayor Giuseppe Sala and Rome’s Mayor Virginia Raggi.
Following in the footsteps of Buenos Aires and Paris, Tokyo and Riyadh – all former Chair cities, the fourth Urban 20 Chair cities will continue to call for enhanced partnership between cities and national governments, as well as increasing ambitions at national level. In doing so, they will address key issues like climate action, social inclusion, and sustainable economic growth, to achieve a green and just recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.
U20 cities will hold their final Summit in Rome, in June 2021. In that occasion U20 will convey their joint recommendations to the government of Italy as G20 President, to be presented to the G20 Leaders’ Summit – currently set to take place in Rome, October 30-31, 2021.
Urban 20 is a city diplomacy initiative that brings together cities from G20 member states under a common framework to discuss global economic, climate and development issues. The cities form a common position and issue recommendations for consideration by the G20 presidency and Heads of State and Government, enhancing the role of cities as global economic and political leaders. The U20 initiative is permanently convened by C40 Cities and United Cities and Local Governments, under the leadership of a Chair city that rotates annually. Prior U20 cycles were previously Chaired by Buenos Aires and Paris (2018), Tokyo (2019) and Riyadh (2020).