By Theresa Vamboi
The indefatigable Mayor of the Freetown Municipality, Her Worship Aki-Sawyerr joined more than 80 mayors and hundreds of climate leaders from across all sectors at the C40 World Mayors Summit. The Summit, hosted by C40 Cities, the City of Copenhagen and Realdania, drew attention to the climate emergency and the roles that cities play in reducing GHG emissions and mitigating against the adverse effects of climate change on communities around the world.
On the first day of the Summit, Mayor Aki-Sawyerr was honored to join the Mayors of Copenhagen, Paris and Los Angeles during press conference that launched the Summit before participating in a public debate.
She highlighted the urgent need for cleaning up the world’s waterways whilst kayaking along Copenhagen’s river and conducted a number of TV and radio interviews with Danish and international media agencies throughout the Summit.
Mayor Aki-Sawyerr was part of a small group meeting with Former Vice-President Al Gore focused on a review of the latest available climate change data. She shared the Transform Freetown climate action agenda with Denmark’s Minister of Development, academics and innovators at the Technology University of Denmark’s SkyLab. She was among C40 Cities Summit guests invited to a dinner hosted by the Crown Prince and Princess of Denmark.
The Mayor was a panelist at the Mayors Migration Council event where she joined other Mayors to discuss the nexus between migration and climate change. She joined the Mayor of Stockholm to launch the Women4Climate Tech Challenge and participated in a closed door roundtable and at a press conference with young climate activists from around the world where it was announced that C40 Cities will create a Global Youth Initiative. Mayor Aki-Sawyerr participated in a number of bi-lateral meetings and was a panelist in the Summit’s closing plenary session titled ‘The Future We Want Will be Built Together.’
As the Summit drew to a close, Freetown was announced as the newest city to join C40 Cities following a meeting of the C40 Cities Board. An official statement from C40 Cities will be announced in due course.
