Mayor of Freetown and Co-Chair of C40 Cities, Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr on 18 September 18, 2024, shared her insights on the future of urban sustainability and policy, Freetown’s progress toward achieving the Sustainable Development Goal, SDG 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities at the Imperial College’s Global Development Hub in London.
To achieve the SDGs, she said, C40 and Freetown place a strong emphasis on heat adaptation, green energy, and reforestation, alongside expanding solid and liquid waste management value chains, improving digital literacy, and fostering a supportive environment for digital transformation.
She stressed the need for nations to seek a balance between urban growth and sustainability and take action to address climate change.
She aligned Freetown’s progress towards the SDGs through the Transform Freetown-Transforming Lives development roadmap, focusing on Human Capital Development, Climate Action, Digital Economy, and Cultural Heritage.
Cities are where the climate battle will be won or lost as they are home to over half of the global population and responsible for 70% of emissions, with 75% of C40 cities already slashing per capita emissions faster than their respective nation-states. “To achieve the drastic emissions reductions needed and protect our residents from climate impact, we need national governments to work with us,” Mayor Aki-Sawyerr stressed.
Through the Coalition for Hiincludingtion Multilevel Partnerships- CHAMP, 73 countries have committed to include subnational governments in their climate plans. C40 Cities, a network of 100 of the greatest cities in the world committed to collectively halving emissions by 2030, is at the core of leading this initiative with Bloomberg and the Global Covenant of Mayors, GCOM. This directly supports some SDGs by accelerating climate action, enhancing governance, and promoting sustainable development.
In Freetown, for instance, C40 Cities Finance Facility is partnering with the City Council to build the city’s first cable car project as part of the city’s climate action intervention to reduce congestion, cut emissions, and provide a sustainable mode of transport for Freetown’s population. Also, Freetown’s tree planting initiative is helping to combat climate change by reducing greenhouse gas concentrations, mitigating global warming, and enhancing climate resilience, crucial in advancing the SDGs.
The Global Development Hub at Imperial College provides a forum for collaborative research, teaching, and entrepreneurship projects aimed at advancing the SDGs by bringing together scholars and partners from developing nations.