Cape Town residents Dorothy Pieterson and Hilton Esau watch the sunrise from a bridge in Cape Town’s central business district.  Picture: THE TIMES
Cape Town residents Dorothy Pieterson and Hilton Esau watch the sunrise from a bridge in Cape Town’s central business district in this February 14 2014 file photo. Picture: THE TIMES

JOHANNESBURG and Cape Town have won the top cities awards for their innovation in tackling climate change.

The winners of the C40 Cities Award were announced on Thursday and coincide with the COP21 talks in Paris.

Cape Town took the award in the Adaptation Implementation category.

Johannesburg’s win is in the Finance & Economic Development category and is for the city’s Green Bond investment initiative‚ a financial instrument committing it to future emissions reductions‚ the City of Johannesburg said on Friday.

The Green Bond is based on a detailed climate change vulnerability assessment, which helps the city to understand its climate risk and to mitigate climate change. It also creates funding opportunities for long-term mitigation strategies to reduce vulnerability.

Johannesburg and Cape Town were among 10 cities announced as winners at the 3rd Annual C40 Cities Awards in Paris during the COP21 climate negotiations. These cities "demonstrated exceptional innovation to build low carbon and climate resilient urban communities".

There were more than 200 applications from 94 cities for the 2015 awards

This year’s winners in the 10 award categories are: Johannesburg (Finance & Economic Development)‚ Boston (Smart Cities & Smart Community Engagement)‚ Cape Town (Adaptation Implementation)‚ Nanjing (Transport)‚ New York (Building Energy Efficiency)‚ Rotterdam (Adaptation Planning & Assessment)‚ Stockholm (Sustainable Communities)‚ Vancouver (Carbon Measurement & Planning)‚ Washington‚ DC (Green Energy) and Wuhan (Solid Waste).

The C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group connects more than 80 of the world’s greatest cities‚ representing more than 600-million people and a quarter of the global economy.

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