Mayor Dave Bronconnier is back from an invitation-only mayoral climate summit in Copenhagen and returned with an accolade.
Bronconnier represented Calgary as one of the only three Canadian cities invited, alongside Vancouver and Toronto, and said he was honoured to have been part of the summit.
“I’m very proud of Calgary and we’re definitely a leader and we were recognized because of that, and I am very honoured,” Bronconnier said yesterday.
“People were quite surprised to see an energy capital like Calgary receive an award and see we’re actually making significant advances.”
Calgary was honoured with the “Reaching Out to Global Cities” award but, more importantly, Bronconnier said, is the future where Calgary is heading.
“We are the only North American city who will have 100 per cent of its municipal needs on renewables met by 2012. That’s a pretty important distinction.”
Bronconnier said the bottom line from the trip is Calgary had an opportunity to share and the city’s message was well-received.
The Calgary Climate Change Accord was also recognized at the summit, as it calls to reduce green house-gas emissions in energy cities generated by their activities by a minimum of 20 per cent by 2020, with a further minimum reduction of 80 per cent by 2050.
