C40 (Climate Leadership Group) was created in October 2005, by Ken Livingstone, Mayor of London at that time, when he invited representatives from 18 leading world cities to meet, discuss and join forces to tackle global warming and climate change.
The C40 initiative has two main objectives: to create cooperation on reducing greenhouse gas emissions and promoting the group actions between companies, public administration and society, against the global climate change.

The Summit

The Summit provides an opportunity for C40 cities to further clarify and develop the working relationship within the group. This is tended by a number of C40-only meetings.
Each summit brings together an unprecedented number of mayors from major cities, their senior staff and business leaders. Through a comprehensive programme of interactive sessions, delegates can share best practices and identify collaborative projects.
The biannual event has already been hosted in London (2005), New York City (2007) and Seoul (2009). The current chair of the C40 is Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg of New York.

C40 Sao Paulo Summit

The continued efforts to tackle climate change gave Sao Paulo the opportunity to be the first city from the Southern Hemisphere to host the 2011 C40 Summit - 31 May to 3 June 2011.

It shall also provide an excellent opportunity for exploration and exchange of new ideas on transportation, energy, financing, land use and solid waste, essential issues to ensure sustainability and quality of life to all citizens.

Sao Paulo is one of the only cities in Brazil that made an emissions inventory, published in 2005. The document identifies that energy use accounts for 76% of the emissions in the city.

In June 2009 the City Council approved the bill that institutes the Municipal Policy for Climate Change in Sao Paulo. It was the first law on local government climate strategy in Latin America. The law is based on a polluter-payer principle and takes into account the growing responsibility of cities in tackling global warming. The bill foresees a target of 30% reduction on carbon equivalent emissions by 2012, based on the recent city’s inventory (2005).

The city is also pursuing several other important targets such as having its municipal transportation system running completely on renewable fuels by 2018, restructuring its recycling program, promoting new inventories every five years and new global targets every two years.