News

29 April 2025

U7 Mayors' Summit in Kobe concludes in Push for Formal Recognition in the G7 Process

Local leaders from G7 countries gathered today in Kobe for the fourth Urban7 (U7) Mayors' Summit, alongside the Kobe City Global Conference marking the 30th anniversary of the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake. The Summit reinforced the critical role of...

06 November 2024

U7 bring call for multilevel cooperation to tackle urbanisation challenges to the World Urban Forum

How can G7 economies help solve the challenges faced by cities across the world? What are the G7 planning to advance sustainable development at the city and national level? How can G7 countries best cooperate with local governments to advance...

05 November 2024

U7 at G7 Sustainable Urban Development Ministerial 2024

On 4 November the G7 Sustainable Urban Development Ministers met in Rome to advance urban transformations. Among the list of joint actions, the Ministers included the explicit recommendation to formally include cities in the G7 decision-making...

30 October 2024

U7 Position Paper: Boosting Progress towards G7 Objectives through Sustainable Cities, Urbanization and Multilevel Cooperation

In reference to the G7 Urban Development Communiqué 2024, the U7 put forth their key points for the Ministerial Meeting on Urban Development and future G7 urban cooperation: the need for more horizontal cooperation, an integrated, territorial...

03 August 2024

U7 discussion paper on how to achieve a climate-resilient, people- centred and nature-positive future through multilevel cooperation

Local and regional governments of regions, cities and towns of all sizes have a significant role to play in implementing the G7’s objective of transforming economic and social systems towards net-zero, circular, climate-resilient, pollution-free,...

03 July 2024

U7 kick-start cooperation with French ministries on urban and local matters for the upcoming French G7 presidency in 2026

U7 partners kickstarted cooperation and consultations with representatives from different French ministries on priority topics for G7 countries in view of the upcoming G7 presidency of France in 2026. U7 partners reiterated their readiness to...

17 June 2024

Urban Leaders call on G7 to Advance Solutions to Global Challenges from a Local Perspective

From 13-15 June, Heads of State of the G7 Member States met for the G7 Summit in Fasano, Apulia (Italy). Under the Italian G7 presidency, leaders discussed a wide array of pressing international topics with high relevance for local and regional...

27 May 2024

U7 partners join meeting of G7 senior urban development officials in Rome

Last week, the Italian Presidency of the G7 on Sustainable Urban Development organised a meeting in Rome between Senior Urban Development Officials from all G7 countries in order to prepare the Urban Development Ministers’ Meeting. Alongside...

9 October 2023

Urban7 representatives joined the inaugural G7 roundtable on Subnational Climate Actions

On 5–6 October 2023, representatives of the G7 governments met online for the G7 Roundtable meeting on Subnational Climate Actions. The roundtable was organised by the Japanese Ministry of the Environment in collaboration with the Ministry of Land,...

4 December 2023

Bringing the U7 message to the global climate summit

With recognition of the vital role of both subnational and national governments in the climate agenda, the G7 Roundtable on Subnational Climate Actions was established by the G7 Climate, Energy and Environment Ministers Meeting in 2023 under the...

10 July 2023

U7 Brings Urban Perspective to G7 Sustainable Urban Development Ministers Meeting in Takamatsu, Kagawa

Representing the Urban7, Mayor Kizō Hisamoto (Kobe, Japan) joined the G7 ministers for urban development in Takamatsu, Kagawa to address pressing issues facing cities. The meeting, which took place from July 7 - 9, marked the second time that a...

22 May 2023

G7 Leaders recognise the transformative power of cities as drivers of sustainable development

From 19-21 May, G7 Heads of State met in Hiroshima, Japan to discuss pressing global issues including Russia’s ongoing war in Ukraine, economic resilience, and climate change. In their final Communiqué, the G7 Leaders emphasised “the...

20 April 2023

G7 Ministers announce historic commitment to work with cities on subnational climate action

On 15-16 April, the G7 Ministers’ Meeting on Climate, Energy and Environment in Sapporo (Japan) concluded with the announcement of the first-ever G7 Roundtable on Subnational Climate Actions in collaboration with Urban7 (U7) – the voice of...

3 March 2023

Mayors Gather in Tokyo for Third U7 Mayors Summit

On 2 March 2023, G7 city leaders gathered in Tokyo and online for the third annual U7 Mayors Summit. The mayors discussed their vision for the role of cities in the G7 process as Japan takes on the G7 presidency. The event was hosted by the Japan...

22 February 2023

U7 Impact Report 2022 published

The U7 has published its Impact Report 2022. Since the Group’s launch in 2021, the U7 has advocated for a continuous dialogue between the G7 nations and municipal actors. Its Impact Report 2022 outlines the remarkable success of the Urban7 in 2022...

14 December 2022

U7 Group gathered for final political meeting of 2022

On 14 December 2022 the Urban7 (U7) group gathered for a final meeting of political representatives to look back at the successes of 2022 and plan for the year ahead under the Japanese presidency. Representatives of all U7 city networks joined the...

Hybrid event: 16 November, 16:30 – 18:00 (GMT+2)

U7 discussed the role of cities in realizing a sustainable society at COP27 in Egypt

The Urban7 group represented by ICLEI hosted a session at the UNFCCC COP27 in Egypt. The event titled “The Role of Cities in Realizing a Sustainable Society – Urban Agenda in G7 and UNFCCC-COP” took place on 16 November 2022 at the Multilevel...

Online event: 5 October, 14:00 – 16:00 CET

"Cooperative Climate Action – Municipal Policies from G7 to COP27"

13 September 2022

U7 joins groundbreaking G7 Ministers Meeting on Urban Development

The first-ever meeting of G7 Ministers for Urban Development took place in Potsdam, Germany on 13 September 2022. Mayor Peter Kurz (Mannheim, Germany) was invited by Minister Klara Geywitz to represent the Urban7 at this groundbreaking meeting. Timo...

8 September 2022

U7 to participate in the sustainable urban development summit

G7 ministers of sustainable urban development will meet in Potsdam under the German G7 Presidency on 13-14 September 2022. The meeting will focus on international cooperation to develop liveable and resilient cities, strengthening sustainable urban...

14 July 2022

Major Progress for Urban7 Alliance in G7 Process

Cities have a transformative power. They can offer immense contributions to the overarching goal of progress towards an equitable world and our striving for a sustainable planet, economic stability, healthy lives, investment in a better future, and...

5 July 2022

Upcoming G7 meeting to spotlight sustainable urban development

A newly announced summit of urban development ministries of G7 countries is to take place in Potsdam (Germany) this autumn. This proposal was tabled by the German Ministry for Housing, Urban Development and Building (BMWSB) during a meeting with...

30 June 2022

Multilevel governance and the G7 in the spotlight at the World Urban Forum

While heads of state gathered this week at the G7 Summit, the Urban7 Group – who act as the voice of the cities within the German G7 Presidency – were at the World Urban Forum discussing how to ensure that local leaders’ voices are part of G7...

30 June 2022

From Katowice to Sharm El Sheikh: cities and regions are gearing-up diplomacy and multilevel action on climate emergency

As the World Urban Forum (WUF11) concludes in Katowice (Poland), cities and regions remain firm in their work to advocate for elevating global climate action towards upcoming 27th Conference of Parties (COP27), to be held in Sharm El-Sheikh (Egypt)...