**World Changing”

Imagine a tool that could link the citizens of large world cities around issues involving climate change. Imagine further that these citizens could be mobilized to reduce their environmental footprint and their collective actions could be measured and celebrated.

To give an example, imagine mobilizing the citizens of the C40 cities (a group of large cities committed to fighting climate change). These cities, which include Mumbai, Toronto, New York, Sydney, London, have a combined citizenry in the hundreds of millions and they form, what we refer to as a “Country Without Borders”. It is larger than the United States and much less encumbered when it comes to taking action. Actually, if one chose the right 5 cities in Canada, they would encompass over 85% of Canada’s GNP. Similar relatively small groups of cities would essentially represent geographically bound countries.

Such a tool exists today – it is called the Internet. It has matured to a point that I use it to regularly communicate with people all over the world, including a group in a war-torn area of the Congo. Over a billion people worldwide regularly access it and the amount of data and information stored on it continues to grow exponentially. It is “worldchanging” in that it has reduced the power of governments and enhanced the power of individuals. It does not respect borders. Social networks of people can be linked around issues regardless of their geographical location. News and ideas can be spread virally in record time to many millions of people. Facebook was relatively unknown in Toronto 2 years ago and today one million people, approximately one quarter of the population, are registered users.

Cities have already begun to take cooperative action, often to fill the vacuum of national policy. Since May 2006, with the US Federal Government continuing to reject Kyoto, the mayors of over 700 U.S. cities have signed a climate protection agreement committing themselves to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to seven per cent below 1990 levels by 2012. Among the measures the mayors have agreed to pursue are improved public transport, better pedestrian and cycling facilities, curbs on urban sprawl, and a switch to renewable energy sources. Chicago, for example, plans to increase its renewable energy use to 20 percent by 2010, while Seattle’s green commitments amount to a reduction of 638,000 tons of emissions a year. What was a small group of 30 cities brought together by the Mayor of Seattle 2 years ago has now blossomed into a large country without borders.

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