World's top City Chiefs meet to fight climate change

SKOREA: Leaders of the world's largest cities, which together produce more than two thirds of its climate-changing greenhouse gas emissions, opened a summit here Tuesday hoping to reverse the trend.

Executives from the 40 largest cities plus 17 affiliate municipalities are attending the C40 Large Cities Climate Summit in Seoul, the third such event since 2005.

Former US President Bill Clinton, whose Clinton Climate Initiative develops programs to help cities cut greenhouse gas emissions, called for commitments and concrete action at the meeting which ends Thuesday.

The issue of how cities "find a way to continue to thrive and prosper while reducing greenhouse gas emissions is one of the central questions in the whole struggle," Clinton told a press conference.

He said his initiative focuses on creating "communities that can both provide a greater quality of life and generate more clean energy than they use."

Half the world's population lived in cities last year, and that figure is expected to grow to 70 percent by 2050, said Clinton, citing UN statistics.

Seoul, AFP