Photo: CHUTTERSNAP | Unsplash
Female mayors are distinguishing themselves as climate leaders, and this article explores why. The mayors of the top three cities in this year’s Sustainable Cities Index -- Stockholm, Oslo and Copenhagen -- are women. 50% of the top 10 cities in the index are led by women. C40, the network of cities founded in 2005 to promote climate action, has spawned a subgroup of female mayors that grew from four in 2014 to 15 in 2017. And it keeps growing. Beate Weber-Schuerholz, mayor of Heidelberg for 16 years from 1990, believes that because women rarely ascend to leadership directly, they are inclined to learn from each other and thus equipped to confront cross-cutting technical and human challenges of climate change laterally and cooperatively. The article reviews how female mayors have focused on sustainability, implemented C40's idea of the 15-minute city, shared ideas with each other, and found inspiration in each other's work.
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