About

The No Regrets Charter is intended to contribute to the global search for guidance on sustainable urban development strategies. It is complementary to the present European Union Climate Change Adaptation Initiative for Cities. As a working document of the Metropolis network, it is meant to be of decisive impact for long-term climate adaptation strategies that Metropolis member cities and regions are developing.

This Charter has been developed through a Metropolis Initiative on Integrated Urban Governance. It comes out of an extensive period of consultation, including two dialogue conferences in Berlin (2013) and Brussels (2014) entitled “No Regrets: Pre-Acting and Adapting to Climate Change in Cities”. Follow-up meetings were held in Hyderabad (2014) and Buenos Aires (2015), both organized by the City of Berlin as part of its Metropolis Initiative.

In May 2015 in Buenos Aires the Metropolis Board of Directors adopted the following declaration:

We, the Metropolis network, representing 685 million citizens worldwide, pledge to support our members in controlling their greenhouse gas emissions, setting a quantitative target for every city compatible with limiting the global temperature rise to two degrees Celsius by 2050, taking into account the specific nature and level of development of each metropolis, subject to the approval of enhanced frameworks and measures.

The No Regrets Charter provides a background set of objectives to that declaration concerning the continuous and complex process of climate change adaptation.