Tunç Soyer, Mayor of Izmir Metropolitan Municipality and Co-Chair of ICLEI Climate Action Global Executive Committee, attended the Daring Cities conference organised by the Sustainable Cities Network (ICLEI) and the Bonn Municipality.

Mayor Tunç Soyer, speaking at the conference focusing on the Climate Emergency, stated that Izmir was the first city to complete both the Green City and Climate Action plans in line with Turkey's 2030 target. Mayor Soyer said, “I can give you details of our achievements such as our having the largest electric bus fleet in Turkey, our capacity to install renewable energy in municipal buildings, our integrated strategy on water, food and biodiversity, and our crisis municipal actions to combat all disasters such as earthquakes, fires, floods, and of course the COVID19 pandemic that Izmir has experienced in the last two years. I know that these issues have priority for many Daring Cities such as Izmir. However, I want to give you a different perspective and address the cultural pillar of the Climate Emergency as a new field of local and global action today.”
 
Mayor Soyer, stating that Izmir hosted the fourth UCLG Culture Summit last September, emphasised that they tried to explain their cultural transformation goals with "cyclical culture" for a sustainable future at the Summit. He said that Cyclical Culture had four main pillars to combat the climate crisis and the injustices it created: “harmony with nature, with each other, with our past, and with change”.

Competing in goodness
Mayor Soyer, stating that the climate crisis is essentially the result of the detachment from nature and the alienation of human beings to themselves, concluded his words as the following: “The way to deal with this first major artificial catastrophe that our planet and humanity have faced is very clear: Competing in goodness. I call on ICLEI to consider the cultural pillar of the Climate Emergency action as part of the Daring Cities programme next year. I believe that the climate portfolio we are conducting within ICLEI with my colleague Katja Dörner, Mayor of Bonn and co-chair, offers significant opportunities to achieve this new expansion. Because the Climate Emergency can only be addressed by feeding a cultural revolution.”