The Energy Efficient Cities Initiative Practitioners' Roundtable

Cities represent a major contributor of
greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. According to the United
Nations Population Fund,1 half of the world's
population now lives in cities and is responsible for 75% of
global energy use and GHG emissions. Since the world's
population will continue to grow, and rapid urbanization
will continue particularly in the developing world, tackling
climate change issues in the urban context will be
essential. In response to these challenges, the World
Bank's Energy Sector Management Assistance Program
(ESMAP), in cooperation with the Bank?s Finance Economics
and Urban Department (FEU), has launched an Energy Efficient
Cities Initiative, which is designed to help mainstream and
scale-up sustainable energy and climate change mitigation
actions and investments in the urban context. The first
activity proposed under this Initiative is the Energy
Efficient Cities Practitioners Roundtable, a facilitated
discussion cohosted by ESMAP and FEU. The purpose of this
event was to bring together client cities and partner
organizations to investigate ongoing initiatives and
programs to support cities' sustainable energy goals
needs and develop an Energy Efficient Cities Action Plan
that will outline a vision and subsequent actions to be
taken under the Initiative. The event took place at the
Washington DC offices of the World Bank, from October 20-21, 2008.