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Mayor of Zoersel, Liesbeth Verstreken, and Deputy Mayor of Bohicon, Sanni Mama, signing their commitment under the Covenant of Mayors

21.11.2016

Implementing the Covenant of Mayors in Belgium and Benin

First joint north-south commitments taken by Climate Alliance member Zoersel and partner city Bohicon

Frankfurt/Brussels, 21 November 2016. The municipal council of Zoersel, a long-standing Climate Alliance member, gave its green light in September to sign the Covenant of Mayors, the world’s largest urban climate and energy initiative. It has already been signed by more than 7.100 local authorities in Europe and beyond.

Zoersel is the first of this large community of European signatories to commit to the Covenant jointly with its partner city Bohicon in Benin. Bohicon already plays an active part of the Covenant of Mayors initiative in Sub-Saharan Africa and will receive support from the Covenant of Mayors office in Sub-Saharan Africa to plan and implement actions on the ground as selected Covenant pilot city.

At the joint signing ceremony organized on 21 November by Climate Alliance as official Covenant Supporter, the mayors of the two frontrunner cities pledged to back each other in this process. Deputy Mayor or Bohicon, Mr. Sanni Mama commented: “We are fully aware of the big challenge which climate change represents, and we are counting to work together during the coming years to contribute our efforts.”

The two cities can look back on a long history of strong collaboration, which will now be extended to the field of climate change adaptation and mitigation with the goal to fullfil the objectives of the Covenant of Mayors.

Climate Alliance is part of the offices running both the Covenant of Mayors initiative in Europe and Sub-Saharan Africa on behalf of the European Commission, and supports its members in developing and implementing their Sustainable Energy and Climate Action Plans (SECAPs) as part of their efforts in the Covenant.

“Climate Alliance has a long history of supporting cooperation between local authorities in different regions of the world. We are happy that Zoersel is taking this forward and hope that many members will follow this example and see the great potential of north-south cooperation which the global extension of the Covenant of Mayors is opening up“, congratulated Thomas Brose, Executive Director of Climate Alliance.