ICLEI SAMS announced this Monday morning, the 9th, the start of Smart Cities for Climate Project: Fostering Capacity Building and Investment Application in Low-Carbon Urban Development in Brazil, and also the Competition Great Cities: Innovative Solutions for Urban Challenges. The new developments were presented during the ‘Connected Cities Summit’ event organised by the British Government in the city of São Paulo.

ICLEI chaired the morning session, and in partnership with the Centre for Low Carbon Future, via the University of Leeds, announced the launch of the Climate Smart Cities Project in Brazil. The project aims to develop a series of studies and training initiatives for Brazilian cities on topics related to Greenhouse Gas mitigation, marginal abatement cost of carbon, and the identification of technologies and governance models.

Shortly afterwards, the Executive Secretary of ICLEI-SAMS, Jussara de Lima Carvalho, began the presentation and launch of the The GREAT Competition for Cities: Innovative Solutions for Urban Challenges. The competition provides an opportunity for Brazilian cities to compete for a one-week technical visit to explore themes related to innovation and sustainability in UK cities.

The jury will consider cities that present an inspiring, ambitious, and achievable agenda to advance towards a more sustainable future, with the aim of tackling urban challenges through innovation processes, mainly related to topics such as transport and urban mobility, waste, renewable energies, the built environment, and smart and resilient infrastructure.

Also present at the event were some private sector companies from the UK, and representatives from Brazilian cities, such as Délio Malheiros, Vice-Mayor and Secretary of the Environment, Belo Horizonte, and André Fraga, Secretary of the Environment of Salvador.

Sign up for the GREAT Cities Challenge: Innovative Solutions to Urban Challenges here.