Cities have a huge responsibility in contributing to bringing down greenhouse gas emissions.

Halo loyal viewers, and welcome to Planet Earth: Our Loving Home. On today's program, we present the first in a two-part series on the crucial role that cities across our world are playing in the efforts to mitigate climate change. We will learn about some of the green steps that mayors, councilors, and other local leaders are taking and how they are encouraging more eco-friendly ways of living among their residents.

Currently 50% of humanity lives in urban areas, and by the turn of the next century, it is estimated that up to 90% of the world's population will live in cities. In addition, cities currently consume 80% of the global energy supply. The policies set by urban governments can greatly affect the lives of millions of people.

Decisions made by our municipalities also impact the environment for better or worse and have a dramatic effect on the condition of our biosphere. Important choices regarding public transportation infrastructure, designation of green spaces, waste recycling programs, zoning policies and building codes, and so on are typically made by local governments.

Cities need to lead the way.

Cities have more flexibility in getting something done now.

Every individual must make a contribution. In this regard, let’s do all we can.

Over the past few years, many metros have been rising to the challenge to lessen planetary warming and are courageously leading the way by making sustainability a priority. Let's take a quick look at what some cities around the globe are doing in this area.

Reykjavik, the capital of Iceland, has been recognized as one of the greenest cities in the world. Approximately 95% of all buildings in the metropolis are heated using clean geothermal energy and the city also recently made hydrogen-run buses part of its public transportation system. Reykjavik seeks to be completely fossil-fuel-free by 2050.

Portland, Oregon, USA is also one of the most eco-aware cities on our planet. More than 30 years ago, Portland removed a six-lane highway and replaced it with a 14-hectare waterfront park. Today the municipality has roughly 37,000 hectares of green space and its 119 kilometers of bike trails facilitate walking and biking to work or school. It has an urban growth policy that ensures the protection of the approximately 10 million hectares of forests and farms that surround it.

Portland was also the first city in the United States to formulate a plan to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions.

Japan’s capital of Tokyo is one of the most densely populated metros in the world with almost 6,000 persons per square kilometer and is working diligently to reduce its release of greenhouse gases. Tokyo was recently selected to take part in a billion-dollar project headed by the Clinton Global Initiative, an organization started by former US president Bill Clinton to address urgent issues affecting humanity. The initiative’s objective is to reduce CO2 emissions by increasing the energy efficiency of city-owned buildings. Tokyo has also committed to planting 200,000 additional trees in the city center.

Curitiba, Brazil is seen as a world leader for its green policies that are helping to stem global warming. After establishing an innovative city-bus system, with dedicated lanes and super-stretch vehicles, over 75% of city-dwellers now take the bus on a regular basis. In addition, 70% of Curitiba’s waste is recycled and there are over 52 square meters of green space per person. According to one survey, 99% of Curitibans report that they are happy with their city.

In recent years Kampala, the national capital of Uganda, has seen a great expansion in the amount of locally grown produce thanks to the enactment of ordinances which support urban agriculture. Kampala’s promotion of city-based cultivation has not only transformed the local food system, it has also inspired the national government to adopt a similar urban agriculture policy for the entire country.

The production and consumption of animal products is the number one cause of climate change. According to researchers, this enormously damaging cycle is the source of more than 51% of all human-induced global greenhouse gas emissions. Many municipalities, aware of the relationship between dietary choice and global warming, are developing ways to encourage their residents to choose plant-based fare.

In Europe, Ghent, Belgium, became the first city in the world to introduce a “Veggie Day” in May 2009. Every Thursday schoolchildren in Ghent are provided vegetarian lunches as civil servants and city councillors set an example for all residents by enjoying vegetarian meals.

Taking a laudable step forward, on April 6, 2010 the San Francisco Board of Supervisors signed a historic resolution implementing a city-wide VegDay every Monday, making San Francisco the first US city to officially join the international meat-free day movement.

In July 2010, the first city in all of Africa, Cape Town, South Africa, officially launched a Meat Free Mondays campaign to promote public health, better animal welfare, and halt global warming. City officials across continents are working together to find ways to lessen the generation of greenhouse gases.

ICLEI-Local Governments for Sustainability is an international association of local governments whose primary mission is to share innovative ideas about sustainable development. With members from more than 1,200 cities, towns and counties from 70 different countries, ICLEI is the largest association of local governments in the world.

We are approaching a number of tipping points, particularly in relation to climate change and to ocean and terrestrial ecosystems. If we pass these points, corrective action will both be immensely expensive and very probably ineffective.

In October 2010 the group held their 20th anniversary meeting in Incheon, South Korea with the theme “Future of Cities.” The second day of the three-day conference was designated as Meat-free Day, and gourmet plant-based meals were served to attendees in recognition of the environmental destructiveness of meat consumption.

Supreme Master Ching Hai, world renowned humanitarian, author, and spiritual teacher frequently encourages leaders at every level to take actions to save our planet, as in an October 2009 video message to a gathering of magistrates and judges in Mexico City, Mexico.

At this most urgent time for the planet, I beseech your honorable graces to please help your country and our world spare lives from the impending global warming calamity. If you don’t, there will be too massive a catastrophe, too immense a suffering upon people, families, the children, that our conscience might never be able to bear it.

We eliminate most of the human-made greenhouse gases by simply adopting the animal-free vegan organic lifestyle. This also leads to considerable financial savings for world governments.

We cannot wait for the sustainable energy and green technology to be available and used by everyone. It would be too late. We must become vegan to save our planet.

On November 21, 2010, one week before the start of the COP16 Climate Change Conference, the World Mayors Summit on Climate was held in Mexico City. Co-sponsored by the Mexico City government, the World Mayors Council on Climate Change, ICLEI-Local Governments for Sustainability, and United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG), the Summit was attended by 3,000 local and regional leaders including 138 mayors from 43 nations.

Some of the world's largest urban metros, including Buenos Aires, Argentina, Johannesburg, South Africa, Los Angeles, USA Paris, France, Vancouver, Canada and Jakarta, Indonesia were represented at the meeting.

Supreme Master Ching Hai was invited to attend the Summit by the Mexico City government as a special guest. Although unable to come due to her busy schedule, she sent delegates to participate in the event as well as well-wishing letters for the organizers and all distinguished guests in attendance.

Martha Delgado, Mexico City’s secretary of the environment and ICLEI’s vice president, stated the following during the gathering, “Cities have great capacities to address climate change, even in the absence of a binding global treaty among nations, which is why we are here today. We are demonstrating the leadership of mayors and cities around the world to take action.”

This opens the door of a technology that we’re looking for to substitute vehicles that pollute too much.

We want green growth. We want organic farming to replace this destructive agriculture.

At lunch, the Summit attendees enjoyed a delicious and nutritious organic vegetarian meal graciously provided by the Mexico City government.

We offered a vegetarian and organic menu for mayors, and we also took that opportunity to sensitize their consciousness about the meat, the generation of methane, also the land that we are losing because of growing animals.

Both the organizers and attendees supported shifting diets to stop climate change.

I had to be excited about the lunch being vegetarian. There’s got to be a start somewhere, and we’ve begun.

It’s much better to eat vegetarian food than to eat meat.

Would you be vegan to save the planet?

Yes, yes. I am with you on that.

What if we had a vegan day in Cancún in the week?

What if, instead of having just one day, we have the whole week? We are having already in Cancún many more vegetarian places. We are supporting so that in addition to care for the environment, there should be care for the main element, which is, the human being. So that we can have a better city, a better country. So that the world lives better.

Be Veg, Go Green 2 Save the Planet!

At the conclusion of the Summit, 135 mayors signed the Mexico City Mayors Pact, an agreement to reduce the generation of greenhouse gases through local laws and initiatives.

These benevolent and caring leaders also agreed to register their climate actions in the Cities Climate Registry (CCCR) at the Bonn Centre for Local Climate Action and Reporting and to provide regular updates on their progress toward lessening greenhouse gases in their respective cities.

The Pact demonstrates that city officials worldwide are united in the goal of stopping global warming. Their cooperative spirit is seen as an example for the global community.

What we’re doing here is to bring this further next week to Cancún, and offer our partnership.

Please join us again next Wednesday on Planet Earth: Our Loving Home as we present the concluding episode in this series on the vital role of cities in mitigating climate change. Thank you for your presence today on our program. Coming up next is Enlightening Entertainment, after Noteworthy News. May all beings on Earth enjoy inner and outer tranquility.