City Climate Planner program aims to raise the global talent base of city climate planning professionals

WASHINGTON, D.C. (October 19, 2017) — A new program to help advance local climate initiatives in cities worldwide was launched today. The City Climate Planner program is being led by the Green Business Certification Inc. (GBCI) and was created by The World Bank Group along with C40 Cities, ICLEI - Local Governments for Sustainability, and World Resources Institute through funding provided by the Korea Green Growth Trust Fund.

Cities contribute about 70 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions and use two-thirds of the world’s energy, so measuring emissions at the city level is a critical first step to managing emissions and tackling climate change.

“The City Climate Planner Program ensures professionals are equipped to support local climate action planning,” said Sarah Alexander, Senior Vice President of Credentialing and Certification, Green Business Certification Inc. “GBCI has added this program to its growing repertoire as we continue to push the essential building blocks of green business development, which includes climate change mitigation and other sustainability issues.”

"The World Bank created the City Climate Planner program to build capacity in cities to take action on climate change. Cities need our support now more than ever. We are excited to have GBCI, WRI and ICLEI scale up the program globally,” said Sameh Wahba, Director, Urban Development and Resilience Unit, World Bank.

The City Climate Planner program will consist of a suite of professional certification programs.

The first certification, which was released today, focuses on community-level greenhouse gas emissions inventory accounting, which is a key building block in developing quality climate action plans. It is geared towards practitioners developing city and community-scale greenhouse gas inventories and is based on the Global Protocol for Community-Scale Greenhouse Gas Emission Inventories (GPC), the most comprehensive global protocol for calculating and reporting GHG inventories.

“Helping city practitioners develop the skills they need to design, plan and implement climate action plans in their communities starts with good measurement,” said Pankaj Bhatia, Deputy Director, Climate Program and Global Director, GHG Protocol at World Resources Institute. “Building the first certification around the GPC ensures they will learn the most comprehensive framework for measuring and managing emissions. Cities can lead on tackling climate change and support global efforts to meet the 2-degree goals only if their climate action plans are informed by quality data.”

In addition to rigorous certification exams that allow candidates to demonstrate mastery of the content, a robust training and online professional network that support this work have also been launched.

In the future, additional professional certifications that address other components of climate action planning will be developed under the City Climate Planner program.

For city climate planners, the City Climate Planner program is the only professional certification program that ensures qualified individuals can respond to the need for comprehensive local climate action, which includes GHG inventories, integrated climate planning efforts, policy development and meaningful systems to measure progress towards achieving climate change mitigation and adaptation goals.