Venue of the 21st session of the Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC– Paris Le Bourget

In November, 2015, the Guangzhou International Award for Urban Innovation (the Guangzhou Award) was shortlisted from more than 120 projects around the world as one of the ICLEI Transformative Actions Programs (TAP) and showed up at the 21st session of Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC (COP21) upon invitation.

Photo of the Guangzhou Award working group and Deputy Secretary General of ICLEI Ms. Monika Zimmermann

From December 3 to 7, the Guangzhou Award working group left for Paris, France to participate in the 2015 UCLG World Council Meetings and COP21. During the visit, the working group joined ICLEI China Session: International Dialogue on Low Carbon City Development and made a presentation on the Guangzhou Award.

Mr. Nicholas You, Senior Advisor of the Guangzhou Award, pointed out that the Award is an interactive platform which facilitates in learning from urban governance, innovation and sustainable development among global cities. Citing low carbon initiatives of the Guangzhou Award as examples, he shared the news that the 3rd cycle of the Guangzhou Award now was open for submission and encouraged participants and their cities to come to join. After the China session, Mr. Nicholas You further introduced how the Guangzhou Award served as an interactive platform and its major events at the ICLEI interview.

Guests presenting the ICLEI China Session: International Dialogue on Low Carbon City Development

Ms. Daniella Radice, Assisstant Mayor of Bristol, attended ICLEI China Session and shared the experience on building smart cities which is one of the winning initiatives of the 2014 Guangzhou Award. Other speakers included Mr. Jiang Zhaoli, Deputy Director of China’s National Development and Reform Commission on Climate Change; Mr. Franzjosef Schafhausen, Director General of Climate Policy, European and International Policy, Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety (BMUB), Germany; Mr. Wang Hanchun, Deputy Director of the Jiangsu Development and Reform Commission, China; Mr. Eckart Wurzner, Mayor of Heidelberg, Germany; Mr. Xu Zhenxi, Deputy Mayor of Qingdao, China; and Mr. Xu Ping, Vice Chairman of the Zhenjiang People's Political Consultative Committee.