Sixteen of the world's largest cities on Wednesday signed up to a global warming initiative described by London Mayor Ken Livingstone as the biggest single step yet taken in tackling climate change.
The US$5 billion proposal, unveiled by former US president Bill Clinton and mayors from cities around the world, would involve slashing energy consumption in existing city buildings through improved technology.
Livingstone, one of the major drivers behind the plan, said the program could cut worldwide greenhouse gas emissions by one-tenth over the next decade, based on extrapolations of initial savings.
"If we look at the pattern of carbon emissions around the world, in the decade that follows this decision, as this new global industry takes off, we can reduce total global carbon emissions by about 10 percent," he said.
The so-called energy efficiency building retrofit program brings together Clinton's private foundation, four of the largest energy service companies, five of the world's biggest banks and cities from four continents.
"This is not just an initiative, this is the biggest single step to tackle climate change that has been taken by any layers of government anywhere in the world since the debate about climate change started," Livingstone said.
Clinton said that the proposal would help owners of older buildings that leak hot air in the winter and cool air in the summer to slash between 25 percent and 50 percent off their current energy usage.
"Cities use more than 75 percent of the world's energy and generate more than 75 percent of its greenhouse gases. Buildings are often the largest energy users," he said.
The cities involved in the initiative include Bangkok, Berlin, Chicago, Houston, Johannesburg, Karachi, London, Melbourne, Mexico City, Mumbai, New York, Rome, Sao Paulo, Seoul, Tokyo and Toronto.
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