Report by Ms. Jacqueline Cabasso, Executive Advisor for Mayors for Peace
Adapted from a report by Tom Cochran, CEO and Executive Director, U.S. Conference of Mayors, June 14, 2021
On June 9, 2021, President of ICLE Global (Local Governments for Sustainability) and Mayors for Peace U.S. Vice President Mayor Frank Cownie of Des Moines, Iowa represented the U.S. Conference of Mayors and American mayors at a meeting held virtually on the margins of the G7 Summit hosted by the United Kingdom.
Photo: courtesy of the City of Des Moines
Mayor Cownie spoke to his fellow mayors about the need to make the United Nation’s Climate Conference, that will take place in Glasgow this coming November, the UNFCCC’s COP26, “a generational meeting where we set a new bold agenda and raise the world’s commitment to addressing the climate emergency.” The global pandemic has called into question the ability of many poor countries to effectively participate in the International Climate Negotiations that follow the Paris Agreement.
Mayor Cownie called on G7 Leaders to “re-commit to inclusion and ensure that leaders from around the world can come to Glasgow to be heard and to advocate for their communities. We need to help those mayors, climate activists, youth activists, and civil society leaders to participate, and in doing so we can secure a legitimate outcome to the proceedings.”
The mayors meeting was hosted by Core Cities, UK’s initiative to create an engagement group around the G7, aptly named Urban7. This is part of an international trend in which mayors are being recognized as global leaders and gaining access to previously closed global intuitions like the G20 and the International Organization for Migration.