LONDON: along the way. As a result, “they have an ability to resist and lead which is undoubtedly stronger than that of most men with a typical career path,” says Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo.
That hardiness is coming in handy as many of the world’s cities – a growing number of them led by women – move to take the lead in adopting clean energy, adapting to climate threats and otherwise battling climate change.
Women “have the courage to bring about those changes,” said Hidalgo, Paris’ first woman mayor and the first female leader of a global network of more than 80 cities leading on climate action.
In two years, the number of women in charge of large cities that are taking the lead on climate change has risen from four to 16, according to C40 Cities, which is organising a conference for women leaders in New York this month.
Hidalgo, who took office in 2014, has set ambitious goals for the French capital – among them cleaning up Paris’ noxious air and making the River Seine swimmable again by 2024. Making them a reality will take significant changes in how the city works – and standing up to the resistance to those changes, she said.
