Cambridge is fortunate to have City Councilor Henrietta Davis representing Cambridge as part of the National League of Cities delegation to the International Climate Congress now underway in Copenhagen.  Councilor Davis has been posting some of her notes and impressions of the conference at the Greater Boston Sierra Club Group blog but has allowed us to also post some excerpts here.  It is very exciting for Cambridge to participate in this conference, particularly in light of all the work that is underway locally on climate change issues including the recent Cambridge Climate Congress as well as the work that the municipal government and the Cambridge Energy Alliance are doing.

There are places you can read about the Copenhagen congress including here and here but below are some of excerpts from Councilor Davis’ reports from the conference.

All quotations excerpted from sierragbg.blogspot.com

“Just returned from a gathering of municipal leaders in honor of the COP-15 host, Lord Mayor Ritt Bjerregaard of Copenhagen. While there our team connected with several other local government leaders, including Mayor Bloomberg of New York, Mayor Nickels of Seattle, and Mayor Elizabeth Kautz of Burnsville, MN — the incoming president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, which hosted this event. As this was a meeting of municipal leaders from around the globe we were also pleased to spend time speaking with the Mayor of Istanbul, Kadir Topbas, and Mayor David Bronoconnier of Calgary. The event underscored the important role that local government has had leading the fight against climate change. In remarks to the group, Lord Mayor Bjerregaard pointed out that the assembled group of mayors and local officials rightfully arrived in Copenhagen ahead of their national delegations physically, much in the same way that they have also been actively ahead of national leadership on this important issue.”

“At a negotiation session with the State Department advocating for partnerships between the federal government and cities and towns on climate. We are the folks who are following through on adaptation and mitigation. We want to be at the table as this action goes forward. We are focused and committed and we’d like to be formally recognized in the agreement and in the language. Ten minutes later…I just testified, representing 19,000 cities and towns. Members of the National League of Cities, Conference of Mayors and Counties, and ICLEI delivered a unified message, asking the US State Department to work in coordination with us. We are critical partners. We’ve been doing this work for years.”