Mayor Horacio Rodríguez Larreta took part today in the Zero Carbon Forum in Paris, organized by his Paris counterpart, Anne Hidalgo, on the fifth anniversary of the signing of the Paris Agreement.

“As cities we are aware that in the current crisis context these commitments are not easy. But we also know that we cannot keep with the status quo. We have the opportunity to rewrite the urban design of our cities, focusing on cities on a human scale which improve the quality of life of their residents and visitors, and contribute to climate action,” said Rodríguez Larreta during the event.

The mayor joined a panel on "Cities within 15 minutes", together with mayors Ada Colau (Barcelona), Philippe Close (Brussels), Kostas Bakoyannis (Athens) and Elkin Velasquez Monsalve, director of UN Habitat for Latin America. Buenos Aires is one of the first cities in the world that committed to present a C40-endorsed Climate Action Plan, that commits to carbon neutrality, greater resilience and inclusiveness by 2050. In addition, Buenos Aires has committed to reducing over 50% of emissions by 2030.

According to C40, the efforts of the world's major cities will prevent at least one gigaton of greenhouse gas emissions from being released into the atmosphere between 2020 and 2030, equivalent to the combined annual emissions of Canada and the United Kingdom.

"Five years after the Paris Climate Agreement, I am proud to see so many cities around the world launch their plans to keep the global temperature rise below 1.5 ° C. This marks an important milestone in our efforts to accelerate climate action and demonstrates the incredible leadership of cities on this issue," said chair Anne Hidalgo, Mayor of Paris.

Buenos Aires has been promoting a series of actions at the global, regional and federal levels as it looks to consolidate an alliance of cities committed to climate action and sustainable development at the next COP26 Climate Summit.

A few weeks ago, the city government launched its BA Climate Change Platform, that publishes the city's emission reduction goals and opens up all climate management data so that anyone can monitor the city's progress and join in the city's efforts to be more inclusive, resilient and energy efficient. 

In addition, 18 cities around the world, including Buenos Aires, New Delhi, Paris and Los Angeles launched this week the Students Reinventing Cities initiative, the first competition of its kind, where students from all countries can propose innovative solutions on how to rethink our cities and contribute to more sustainable public spaces.