Nairobi Launches Green And Just COVID-19 Recovery Plan

C40 Cities have released C40 Mayors Agenda for a Green and Just Recovery outlining bold steps to deliver an equitable and sustainable recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic and an end to fossil fuel subsidies.

The agenda includes specific measures that are already being delivered and endorsed in many cities around the continent including Nairobi, Freetown, Johannesburg, Cape Town, Durban, Addis Ababa, Lagos, and Accra.

The outcome of the plan seeks to create a ‘new normal’, which will identify, contain, and proactively prepare cities for future pandemics while addressing systemic injustices.

Amongst the measures championed by mayors today include providing immediate access to water to vulnerable communities and institutions, issuing permits for citizens to work and generate income, green job creation programs; increased rights and support for all workers whose efforts proved essential during the COVID-19 pandemic; investments in green industries such as guaranteed access to resilient public services, particularly for the most vulnerable; building retrofit programs; investing in safe and reliable mass transit, and new protected spaces for pedestrians and cyclists.

Recognizing that delivering an equitable, low carbon recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic will require a global effort, C40 Cities and its allies have also called on national governments to support their efforts.

C40 mayors call for commitments to “ensure that all economic recovery funds and stimulus packages support a fair and sustainable transition.” Calling for an end to all public investments in fossil fuels, C40 mayors are clear; “Nations must seize this moment to decisively move away from investments in high carbon and fossil fuel-intensive industries and increase investments in a low carbon future.”

The mayors’ agenda makes clear that the COVID-19 pandemic has starkly exposed deep inequalities in cities and across cities in different regions of the world, including by disproportionately impacting Black people, Indigenous communities, and people of color, low-income communities, isolated elderly, and those living in informal settlements.

Mayors commit to addressing these injustices and call on national governments to ensure stimulus investment and recovery funds create more just and inclusive societies and communities and directly address long-standing inequalities and ongoing discrimination based on race, gender, and income.

The mayor’s agenda was released by the C40 Global Mayors COVID-19 Recovery Task Force, established in the direction of C40 Chair and Mayor of Los Angeles, Eric Garcetti, and chaired by Mayor of Milan Giuseppe Sala. The Task Force was guided by a Statement of Principles, already endorsed by more than 40 city leaders from around the world.

African mayors have been collaborating throughout their response to the COVID-19 crisis. That unparalleled cooperation will form the basis of the just and green recovery in the world’s leading cities.

READ: House Prices in Nairobi’s High-end Market Fell By 5.4 Percent