This is a good time to get depressed about climate change. Although the recent climate talks in Cancun in the end exceeded the considerably diminished expectations that many had set, as  Robert Stavins wrote on The Energy Collective in December, the outlook for comprehensive and meaningful international cooperation to reduce CO2 emissions remains dim, as TEC blogger and Contributing Editor to FORTUNE, Marc Gunther, had predicted in a prelude post.

But sometimes salvation, like the tiny rodent who relieves a lion of a thorn in its paw, comes from smaller and less likely places.  The problem with addressing CO2 emissions is that regulation is specific and costly to the individual, while the benefits to mitigating climate change through international, and even federal, are diffuse and in the future, and however fast the "point of no return" approaches, a sense of public urgency is still elusive on any massive and global scale.

The smaller place, and source of hope, in this case, is not so small.  In the week prior to Cancun, the mayors of the world’s largest cities also met in Mexico and signed a far-reaching pact which commits the Mayors to seeking a reduction in CO2 (again, diffuse benefits to a wary public.)  But there is more reason to hope.  Two reasons to be exact:

Mayors, unlike the governments of most of the developed world, have more direct authority to enact change quickly.  Americans need look no further than New York to see how a motivated mayor can enact far-reaching changes that directly affect the lifestyles of its inhabitants.

Second, the most pressing issue facing mayors of large cities, especially those known as “mega-cities,” is the overwhelming disruption to day-to-day living and commerce that is caused by ever-increasing traffic.  Transportation, according to Pedro Miranda, head of Siemens One, is the greatest concern of mayors today.  As mayors around the world work to alleviate traffic, guess what also is going to be addressed? That’s right: CO2, which is being produced by the largest jurisdictional contributors (cities) to global warming.

(It should be noted that Siemens is the enabling sponsor of this online community.)

The problem for cities, however, is that, unlike international bodies, there is little or no global infrastructure in place to facilitate collaboration and sharing of best practices (although social media and web-enabled communication do represent a whole new opportunity.)  To address this, Siemens undertook a vast and intensive survey with the Economist Intelligence Unit of major cities around the world.  The Green City Index released its rankings for European cities in December 2009, and more recently launched the Latin America Index in November, 2010, in Mexico City. Seventeen major cities were evaluated according to eight categories, including CO2 and energy, transportation, sanitation, water, air quality, land use and buildings, waste, and overall governance.

Mr. Miranda explained that its purpose was not to “blame” those cities that fall behind but rather to begin a process of information sharing that will benefit the entire region. “What this (Green City Index) brings is not a view that one city is better than another one.  What it brings is the knowledge from one city to another about what is working. …Now there is a huge amount of data in the Green City Index.  Now each city can look at where they are and share."

Mayors around the world are also uniquely qualified to execute on solutions in fairly rapid order, because, basically, “mayors have to fix things every day.”  But their problem is financing.  Whether it's Mexico City or New York, cities as a rule contribute hugely to state and federal tax revenues but only retain a small portion for themselves.  This is also something that the Green City Index is meant to address.  The breadth of the study, according to Miranda, gives cities the information they need to prioritize their actions and address specific challenges.

The Green City Index will roll out in North America and Asia in 2011. What was Siemens' motivation in undertaking such a major initiative?  And why, according to Mr. Miranda, is Siemens qualified to evaluate global cities?

“Siemens' expectation is that cities understand that there is a problem.  So transparency and accountability are important.  Second, we have a broad portfolio and most problems can be solved with our portfolio.  Lastly, we are one of the largest employers in the world, so we intend to be a leading example in the world.”

For more detailed information about the Green City Index and the influence of global mayors in reducing CO2 emissions, explore the links below:

http://www.siemens.com/entry/cc/en/greencityindex.htm?section=index/nav/gci_southamerica

http://www.wri.org/stories/2008/09/mayors-get-it-climate-change

http://www.odemagazine.com/doc/37/mayors_are_taking_over_the_world/

 http://www.siemens.com/press/en/events/corporate/2009-12-Cop15.php