Cape Town strengthens global climate leadership at C40 World Mayors Summit in Rio

12 November 2025

The City of Cape Town has reaffirmed its leadership in climate action and resilience at the 2025 C40 World Mayors Summit held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil last week. Represented by Deputy Mayor and Mayoral Committee Member for Spatial Planning and Environment, Alderman Eddie Andrews, and senior officials from the Future Planning and Resilience Directorate, the City joined mayors and experts from around the world to accelerate local delivery on global climate commitments. Read more below:

The Summit, held alongside the COP30 Local Leaders Forum, brought together urban leaders to discuss how cities can drive implementation of the Paris Agreement and promote just, sustainable, and climate-resilient futures.

‘Our call is simple: recognise cities not as beneficiaries, but as co-investors in the planet’s future. Give us the tools, the trust, and the fiscal pathways - and cities like Cape Town will continue to prove that climate resilience and economic growth can advance together,’ said the City’s Deputy Mayor and Mayoral Committee Member for Spatial Planning and Environmental, Alderman Eddie Andrews.

The Deputy Mayor’s participation reflected the City’s growing international profile as a champion for climate action and sustainable urban development. His remarks reinforced the urgency of ensuring that capable cities have direct access to predictable, affordable finance for adaptation and infrastructure.

Cape Town’s delegation, led by the Future Planning and Resilience Directorate, also contributed to key discussions on climate finance, adaptation, energy transition, integration of climate resilience into infrastructure development processes and multilevel governance.

The City shared various practical lessons including that of the Greater Cape Town Water Fund, which demonstrates how blended finance and nature-based solutions can build resilience while creating jobs and reducing infrastructure costs. This example 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, a global initiative designed to help cities transition to climate-responsive urban planning by 2035. The initiative provides technical, policy, and political support to participating cities to ensure that compact, connected, and nature-positive principles guide future growth.

The City was also confirmed as a founding member of the C40 Thriving Food Systems Accelerator, joining cities across Africa, Asia and Latin America in transforming urban food systems to be more equitable, sustainable and resilient. This initiative focuses 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.

‘Cape Town is taking decisive local action - investing in nature-based solutions, advancing our energy transition and spatial reforms, and strengthening our ability to adapt to the realities of a changing climate. Through partnerships like C40, we are able to amplify those efforts and learn from global best practice.

‘We are building a future that is just, resilient, and thriving - where every decision taken today strengthens the lives of tomorrow’s residents,’ said Alderman Andrews.

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Published by:
City of Cape Town, Media Office