As cities confront the twin pressures of climate change and sustainable growth, leaders from around the world gathered in Shanghai this week to explore how local governments can lead low-carbon transformation.

At the Global Mayors Dialogue in Shanghai, officials from cities including Los Angeles, Liverpool, Vientiane, and Rio de Janeiro discussed how they’re building green priorities into local policy — from overhauling energy and transit systems to involving residents and youth in climate adaptation.

“Greening and low-carbon practices are an unstoppable trend,” Shanghai Mayor Gong Zheng said in his opening remarks, emphasizing the city’s push to expand green finance, adopt cleaner technologies, and grow sustainable industries.

Echoing the point, Athsaphangthong Siphandone, governor of Vientiane in Laos, called the shift toward sustainability “a present necessity,” not a distant ambition. “As a small but fast-growing city, we strive to balance growth with equity and preservation,” he said.

Cities may share the goal of cutting carbon emissions, but the paths they take depend heavily on local conditions — from economic structure and infrastructure to political will. While some are electrifying public transit, others are focused on overhauling industrial systems.

In China, the national “dual carbon” targets — to peak emissions by 2030 and reach carbon neutrality by 2060 — require rethinking coal-dependent energy, heavy industry, and sprawling, car-centric urban planning.

“China’s low-carbon transition is focused on four pillars: energy, industry, transportation, and buildings,” said Zhu Dajian, director of the Institute of Governance for Sustainability at Tongji University. 

In the United Kingdom, Liverpool has set a target to reach net-zero emissions across city government operations by 2030, and citywide by 2040.

“Decarbonizing buildings, strengthening grid resilience, expanding urban green energy assets, and increasing the use of heat networks and electric or low-emission transport are areas of focus,” said Nick Small, cabinet member for growth and economy of Liverpool City Council.

As a coastal city and cultural hub, Liverpool was also named the world’s first U.N. Accelerator City for climate action and is piloting new regulations to reduce emissions from live music and film production.

In Brazil, a longtime leader in biofuels, ethanol made from sugarcane remains a key alternative to fossil fuels, according to Jucelia Oliveira Freitas, vice president of the Legislative Assembly of the State of Rio de Janeiro. The country has the world’s largest fleet of vehicles capable of running on gasoline-ethanol blends, a major factor in reducing transport emissions.

Although Rio de Janeiro is Brazil’s largest oil-producing state, it is also working to cut emissions by capturing and processing natural gas that was once reinjected into offshore wells. 

Despite differing local contexts, many cities face common challenges: decarbonizing transport, managing waste, preparing for climate disasters, and protecting biodiversity. Officials said greater cooperation through shared data, technology, and policy ideas could help cities move faster and avoid repeating each other’s mistakes.

“I was quite struck by the similarities that we shared with other cities in the discussions,” said Andria Basilaia, deputy mayor of Tbilisi, Georgia, pointing to parallels between Shanghai’s Hongqiao transport hub and youth development centers in South Korea.

“(This event) is not only an opportunity to hear what Shanghai is doing, but also to learn from other global cities,” he said.

Some of that cooperation is already underway. Dilpreet Sidhu, deputy mayor for international affairs in Los Angeles, pointed to the Los Angeles–Long Beach–Shanghai Green Shipping Corridor, launched in 2022, as an example of city-led climate diplomacy.

The project connects two of the world’s busiest ports and aims to accelerate the shift to zero-carbon shipping. An implementation plan released in 2023 outlines targets to cut emissions across the trans-Pacific route through cleaner fuels, upgraded vessels, and greener port operations.

Looking ahead, Bui Xuan Cuong, vice chairman of Ho Chi Minh City, called for deeper regional coordination across the Asia-Pacific. He proposed creating an Innovation Cities Alliance to bring together urban leaders working on technology, entrepreneurship, and digital governance.

“The alliance would promote open data platforms, joint training programs for digital talent, cross-border startup incubation, and policy sandbox mechanisms to pilot flexible regulatory approaches,” he said. 

He also floated the idea of a regional green logistics corridor linking major port cities — including Shanghai, Singapore, Busan, Jakarta, and Ho Chi Minh City — to share low-carbon standards and apply AI to supply chain and traffic systems.

Freitas, the lawmaker from Brazil, emphasized the need to keep people at the center of sustainable development. “It will only be possible if we view cities as life entities, where nature and society move forward together,” she said. “To make this happen, we need to expand international cooperation, learn from one another, and build bridges of knowledge.”

(Header image: Visuals from Sixth Tone, The Paper, and VCG)