ICMA and CityLinks participated as sponsors in the Southeast Florida Climate Leadership Summit. The Summit was the 5th anniversary of the Southeast Florida Regional Climate Change Compact. The Compact is a formal commitment made by Broward, Miami Dade, Monroe, and Palm Beach counties to work in conjunctions on climate change challenges that affect their communities. The Compact recognizes that climate change impacts are inter-jurisdictional and require cooperation across political boundaries to achieve effective solutions as well as leverage state and federal dollars. 

The CityLinks relationship with the Compact and in turn the Summit, is the result of a pilot partnership between Durban South Africa, Fort Lauderdale and Broward County Florida. The partnership was identified through CityLinks support to the operationalization of the Durban Adaptation Charter (DAC). CityLinks, through ICMA membership, identified Fort Lauderdale as a leader in regional climate change, and connected them with Debra Roberts, Deputy Head of the Environmental Planning and Climate Protection Department in Durban. Susanne Torriente, Assistant City Manager of Fort Lauderdale, and Dr. Jennifer Jurado, Director of Natural Resources, Planning and Management for Broward County, traveled to Durban in July 2013 to participate in a city-to-city exchange. The aim of the exchange was to look at the Compact model to see how it could be applied in the South African context. 

The Compact through its work in Florida, and now with Durban is truly a model for how to tackle problems in a regional context. Like climate change, many of the challenges that ICMA proffessionals face originate from outside their jurisdictions. Working together colaboratively across political boundaries is critical for finding local solutions to state, national and even global problems. Dr. Debra Roberts highlighted this message during her keynote presentation at the Summit which can be downloaded here. Cooperation between Compact representatives, ICMA, and Durban will continue early next year as we plan for officials from Durban to travel to Florida to learn directly from Compact implementers. Stay Tuned!