Inside COP: The Power of Cities - from the Local Leaders Forum

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Nov 7, 2025

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This podcast features Keith Wilson, Mayor of Portland, who discusses innovative climate financing and resilience strategies alongside his experience in low-carbon freight. Christiana Figueres, former UN climate chief, moderates a panel highlighting cities’ crucial role in implementing climate solutions. Anne Hidalgo, Mayor of Paris, shares her city's green policies like cycling expansion and river restoration. Together, they emphasize that impactful climate action occurs locally, showcasing cities as vital leaders in the global climate movement.

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INSIGHT

Cities Drive Real-World Climate Progress

Cities represent 23% of global GDP and 73% of C40 cities have already peaked emissions, showing urban leadership is feasible.
Local action often aligns closer to economic reality than national NDCs, making cities crucial to implementation.

ADVICE

Roll Up NDCs From Local Commitments

Build NDCs bottom-up by rolling up city and regional commitments through initiatives like CHAMP.
Use local commitments to make national plans more resilient to political swings and more reflective of implementable action.

INSIGHT

Annual Climate Budgets Drive Delivery

Tying annual climate budgets to financial budgets forces cities to deliver and accelerates implementation.
Collaborative networks like C40 push members to exceed lowest-common-denominator targets.

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Behind the national plans and global headlines, a quieter revolution is already underway. Almost 100 major cities - representing 23% of the world’s economy - are proving what local leadership can do. From clean-air targets and green-job creation to citizen-led adaptation, these C40 cities are already showing that climate action works for the planet and for their people.

In this episode, Tom Rivett-Carnac and Fiona McRaith take us inside the COP30 Local Leaders Forum in Rio de Janeiro - where mayors, governors, and regional leaders are driving climate progress from the ground up.

As part of this, they spend time at the C40 World Mayors Summit, where Tom speaks with Mark Watts, C40 Cities Executive Director C40 Cities, about how mayors are turning ambition into action. And in a timely conversation, Mayor Keith Wilson of Portland shares how his city is cutting emissions and investing in resilience as federal support stalls.

Finally, we hear from a panel hosted by Christiana Figueres with Mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo, Mayor of Freetown Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr, youth climate advocate Juliette Oluoch and COP30 Special Envoy for Bioeconomy Marcelo Behar.

As the world prepares to meet in Belém, these cities, citizens, and local leaders are demonstrating that climate action doesn’t wait for permission - it starts where people live.

Learn more:

📰 Read what was on the agenda and what happened at the COP30 Local Leaders Forum

🌆 Explore the people and places behind C40 Cities

🤝 Find out more about the CHAMP initiative (the Coalition for High Ambition Multi-Level Partnerships)

🌍 Check out the official COP30 website

🎤 What do you want to hear on Inside COP? Ask us on SpeakPipe

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Producer: Ben Weaver-Hincks

Edited by: Miles Martignoni

Video Producer: Caitlin Hanrahan

Exec Producer: Ellie Clifford

With thanks to Groundswell and Global Optimism.

This is a Persephonica production for Global Optimism and is part of the Acast Creator Network.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.