C40 and World Bank Form Groundbreaking Climate Change Action Partnership

SAO PAULO, June 1, 2011 -

- Unique cooperation will address key barriers cities face in obtaining
financing for climate-related projects

The C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group and the World Bank today
announced a groundbreaking partnership that will help cities accelerate
actions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and become more resilient to
climate change. C40 Chair New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and World
Bank Group President Robert B. Zoellick signed the agreement during opening
plenary of the C40 Cities Mayors Summit in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

"The leaders of C40 Cities — the world's megacities — hold the future
in their hands," said C40 Chair, New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg.
"This unique partnership with the World Bank will help solve many of the
problems that cities face in obtaining financing for climate-related
projects, both from the World Bank and other lenders. It will also make it
easier for C40 cities to access the resources of the World Bank."

The key objective of this new partnership is to enable megacities to
expand mitigation and adaptation actions and at the same time, strengthen and
protect economies, reduce poverty and protect vulnerable populations. It
addresses structural issues that make it difficult for cities to finance
climate actions that have been identified by both C40 Cities and the World
Bank Group.

"The World Bank has a long history of working in urban areas to promote
economic development to overcome poverty and more recently to address climate
change," said World Bank Group President Robert B. Zoellick. "This agreement
will help us work with C40 cities to integrate growth planning with climate
change adaptation and mitigation, with special attention to the
vulnerabilities of the urban poor."

As part of the mutual agreement, the C40 and the World Bank will
establish a consistent approach to climate action plans and strategies in
large cities to enable stronger partnerships between cities on shared climate
goals, and to permit potential investors to identify opportunities across
cities. The two entities will also establish a common approach to measuring
and reporting on city greenhouse gas emissions to allow verifiable and
consistent monitoring of emissions reductions, identify actions that result
in the greatest emission reductions, and facilitate access to carbon finance.

"Cities are growing at a faster rate than ever before and producing the
majority of carbon emissions; we are already facing rising sea levels and
more extreme hurricanes, droughts, and cyclones," said President Clinton.
"Our partnership with the World Bank will provide essential tools to help
cities become more sustainable, grow their economies, create jobs, promote
energy independence, and ensure a stable future for generations to come."

Read the full press release here (
c40citieslive.squarespace.com/storage/World%20Bank%20C40%20Announcement%206.1.11.pdf).

Michael Marinello, mmarinello at c40.com, +1-425-894-1781, or Olivia Ross, oross at clintonfoundation.org, +44-7944-931-775, both for C40; or Alexandra Humme: ahumme at worldbank.org of World Bank, +44-7734-543-687