The City of Cape Town has attended the 2025 C40 World Mayors Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and reaffirmed its leadership in climate action and resilience, last week.
Deputy Mayor and Member of the Mayoral Committee for Spatial Planning and Environment – Alderman Eddie Andrews with the senior officials from the Future Planning and Resilience Directorate, represented the Cape Town.
The city joined mayors and experts from around the world to accelerate local delivery on global climate commitments. The Summit was held alongside the COP30 Local Leaders Forum which brought together the urban leaders to discuss how cities can drive implementation of the Paris Agreement and promote just, sustainable and climate-resilient futures.
Andrews said that their call is simple to recognise cities not as beneficiaries, but as co-investors in the planet’s future. They want the tools, the trust, and the fiscal pathways with the cities like Cape Town that will continue to prove the climate resilience and where the economic growth can advance together.
Participation of Deputy Mayor in summit reflected the growing international profile of the City of Cape Town as a champion for climate action and sustainable urban development. He made remarks that reinforced the urgency of ensuring the capable cities which have direct access to predictable, affordable finance for adaptation and infrastructure.
The Future Planning and Resilience Directorate led the delegation of Cape Town and contributed to key discussions on climate finance, adaptation, energy transition, integration of climate resilience into infrastructure development processes and multilevel governance.
City of Cape Town shared various practical lessons that included the Greater Cape Town Water Fund and demonstrated how blended finance and nature-based solutions can build resilience while creating jobs and reducing infrastructure costs.
This showcased Cape Town’s ability to align fiscal responsibility with innovation – proving that local governments can deliver measurable, scalable climate outcomes when they are empowered to do so.
At the Summit, Cape Town was announced as a signatory to the newly launched C40 and UN-Habitat Urban Planning Accelerator. It is a global initiative designed to help cities transition to climate-responsive urban planning by 2035. The initiative provides technical, policy and political support to the participating cities and ensures that compact, connected and nature-positive principles guide future growth.
Cape Town was also confirmed as a founding member of the C40 Thriving Food Systems Accelerator, joined by the cities across Africa, Asia and Latin America in transforming urban food systems to be more equitable, sustainable and resilient. This initiative focuses more on strengthening food governance, improving access to nutritious food, and building sustainable food economies that can withstand climate shocks.
The C40 World Mayors Summit concluded with a shared commitment among participating cities to strengthen collaboration between local and national governments, to reform global finance mechanisms for adaptation and to elevate the role of cities in shaping the next phase of global climate action.
Alderman Eddie Andrews affirmed that Cape Town is taking decisive local action by investing in nature-based solutions, advancing the energy transition and spatial reforms, as well as strengthening the ability to adapt to the realities of a changing climate. Through partnerships like C40, they can amplify the efforts and learn from global best practice. Also, they are building a future that is just, resilient, and thriving where every decision taken today strengthens the lives of tomorrow’s residents.