The mayors of Boston, Paris, Freetown, Sierra Leone and Quezon City, Philippines, made it into the choice. Forbes’ first list of Sustainability Leaders. We spoke to 2 of them concerning the climate problems of their cities – and possible solutions.
From Amy FeldmanForbes Employee
Four cities, 4 mayors, 4 approaches to climate change.
The mayors of Boston, Paris, Freetown (Sierra Leone) and Quezon City (Philippines) all made Forbes’ inaugural list of leading cities for sustainability. These cities could seem to have little in common at first glance, but the ladies at their helm – Michelle Wu, Anne Hidalgo, Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr and Joy Belmonte – have taken motion to cut back greenhouse gas emissions, increase tree cover and counter the climate emergency declared by Quezon City’s Belmonte.
In an hour-long conversation on Zoom this week, Aki-Sawyerr, mayor of Freetown (Sierra Leone’s capital with a population of around 1.5 million) since 2018, and Belmonte, mayor of Quezon City (the most important city in Metro Manila with a population of three.2 million) since 2019, spoke passionately about their efforts to make their cities more sustainable, the challenges of financing climate efforts in developing countries, and why working on the local level is significant.
In Freetown, masses of individuals have moved to town because crop yields have declined and weather extremes in rural areas are exacerbating the results of climate change, Aki-Sawyerr said. She has focused on creating shaded areas and planting trees—currently 1.2 million trees are planted, with a goal of 4 million by the top of 2028. “It sounds so simple, and yet the impact is so pervasive,” she said, listing how trees can reduce heat, improve air quality and reduce the chance of flooding. She has also built a brand new wastewater plant that converts organic waste into natural energy, so town’s residents rely less on wood (and tree cutting).
In Quezon City, where a typhoon hit the day we spoke, Belmonte has, amongst other things, expanded town’s bike lane network to 350 kilometers and introduced a “garbage-to-cash” program where residents can drop off paper and plastics for recycling and receive points to purchase groceries or pay utility bills. This will help Belmonte meet her goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 30% by 2030 and reaching net zero by 2050. By declaring a climate emergency soon after her election, she said, “we have now been able to justify allocating a larger budget to climate action and climate justice.”
In Boston, Wu, who has been mayor since 2021, signed a law to completely divest town from fossil fuels, tripled curbside compost collection, introduced measures to decarbonize buildings and accelerated the electrification of town’s electric bus fleet. And in Paris, Hidalgo, who took office in 2014, has built a whole lot of miles of motorbike lanes, planted greater than 200,000 trees, raised parking fees for gas-guzzling SUVs and worked to make the Summer Olympics more sustainable.
At a time when rates of interest are high and native budgets are tight within the developing world, funding for cities like Freetown and Quezon City stays a big problem, Aki-Sawyerr and Belmonte said. “As two mayors of cities that have not contributed significantly to the climate crisis we are in, we cannot overstate the magnitude of the injustice inherent in the current climate crisis,” Aki-Sawyerr said. “Those who have contributed the least to climate change are suffering the most from the impacts and have the least access to the resources needed to support communities. That is what we are committed to.”
Watch the video to see the total conversation.
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