The Bloomberg Cities Ideas Exchange will give city governments grants for startup costs and technical support, as well as sponsor trips and webinars to inform leaders about new programs.
“He understood the unique opportunity that city leaders have to drive progress locally, but also contribute to driving around global issues like climate change,” Anderson told The Associated Press in an interview. “We looked around and we understood very quickly that many city halls did not have the capacity they needed to find solutions and to implement them locally, to make them more ambitious and move their cities and the world forward.
In 2022, the city received a $400,000 grant from Bloomberg Philanthropies to launch the program and it has already made a difference in the city, said Lincoln Mayor Leirion Gaylor Baird. The biochar — which the city produces from trees blown down in storms or damaged by“We have ambitious climate action goals,” Gaylor Baird said.
“Cities are really crucial for fighting climate change because they have a different angle coming in,” Gustafsson said. “Cities are not trying to make a profit. They are trying to do something good for their citizens.”