Inside COP: The Power of Cities - from the Local Leaders Forum

Outrage + Optimism: The Climate Podcast

Persephonica

News, Planet, Business, Society & Culture, Current Affairs, Green, Policy, Finance, Society, Environment, Science, Energy, Climate

4.7 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 7 November 2025

⏱️ 37 minutes

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Summary

Behind the national plans and global headlines, a quieter revolution is already underway. Almost 100 major cities - representing 23% of the world’s economy - are proving what local leadership can do. From clean-air targets and green-job creation to citizen-led adaptation, these C40 cities are already showing that climate action works for the planet and for their people.

In this episode, Tom Rivett-Carnac and Fiona McRaith take us inside the COP30 Local Leaders Forum in Rio de Janeiro - where mayors, governors, and regional leaders are driving climate progress from the ground up.

As part of this, they spend time at the C40 World Mayors Summit, where Tom speaks with Mark Watts, C40 Cities Executive Director C40 Cities, about how mayors are turning ambition into action. And in a timely conversation, Mayor Keith Wilson of Portland shares how his city is cutting emissions and investing in resilience as federal support stalls.

Finally, we hear from a panel hosted by Christiana Figueres with Mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo, Mayor of Freetown Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr, youth climate advocate Juliette Oluoch and COP30 Special Envoy for Bioeconomy Marcelo Behar.

As the world prepares to meet in Belém, these cities, citizens, and local leaders are demonstrating that climate action doesn’t wait for permission - it starts where people live.

Learn more:

📰 Read what was on the agenda and what happened at the COP30 Local Leaders Forum

🌆 Explore the people and places behind C40 Cities

🤝 Find out more about the CHAMP initiative (the Coalition for High Ambition Multi-Level Partnerships)

🌍 Check out the official COP30 website

🎤 What do you want to hear on Inside COP? Ask us on SpeakPipe

Instagram @outrageoptimism

LinkedIn @outrageoptimism

And we want to hear from you! What do you want to hear more of in Inside COP? Get in touch with us. Get in touch with us via this form.

Producer: Ben Weaver-Hincks

Edited by: Miles Martignoni

Video Producer: Caitlin Hanrahan

Exec Producer: Ellie Clifford

With thanks to Groundswell and Global Optimism.

This is a Persephonica production for Global Optimism and is part of the Acast Creator Network.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome to outrage and optimism. I'm Tom Rivikarnik. And I'm Fiona McGrath.
0:07.2	Today on InsideCorp, we look at what just happened at the local leaders forum here in Rio de Janeiro.
0:12.0	Thanks for being here.
0:15.3	Sophia's you and me this morning. Here we are in Rio, crouched around microphones and a hotel room.
0:19.6	And it's going to be a lot of this
0:21.2	over the next couple of weeks. So excited. So excited. Christina is somewhere with the Earthshot Prize.
0:26.1	Paul's still not here. So we'll just do our best to hold the foot and carry on. But we have been with
0:32.1	Christiana a lot, you particularly yesterday, at the local leaders forum going around. This has been a
0:37.1	really impressive event,
0:38.4	I think a three-day gathering of mayors, governors and regional leaders around the idea that
0:42.6	subnational governments are a really important part of implementation. And given how difficult
0:46.9	the politics are going to be in Bel-M, this feels really important. Yeah, I love this.
0:51.6	I mean, it's brilliant to have the first few days of the week be all about subnational, local leadership. And then, of course, we fly to Bilem on Thursday, and Thursday and Friday is the World Leaders Summit. So this baton pass of seeing the action at both levels, but really highlighting these past few days, and we'll get into it, just how much incredible work is
1:12.6	continuing to happen all over the world at the local level, led by constituents, mayors, governors.
1:19.8	Yeah.
1:20.4	None of them seem to be slowing down is the interesting thing.
1:22.8	And some of them say that, you know, national government policy is important, but actually
1:26.1	we do have the tools to move ahead and really make things happen. And that goes for the US mayors as much as anyone.
1:31.8	Now, we should make clear that this local leaders forum is actually hosted by the COP30 presidency,
1:37.1	together with Bloomberg philanthropies. And as part of it, there was also the C40 World Mayor's
1:42.3	Summit. And we'll be hearing from Mark Watts, the CEO of C40 in a bit.
1:45.5	C40 is an amazing organization.
	...

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