Last week, Los Angeles was proud to host world leaders from across the Western Hemisphere for the Ninth Summit of the Americas.

It’s easy to see why our City was a natural choice for hosting this historic summit: 

We’re a city of the future, modeling for the world what a commitment to sustainability, resilience and equity looks like on the ground.

We have deep ties throughout our hemisphere.

We are home to the largest Latino population in the United States, and we draw our greatest strength from our immigrant roots and our global identity. 

We’re a city of belonging, built by dreamers and doers from every corner of this hemisphere.

In fact, you might say Los Angeles is a 24/7 Summit of the Americas. 

Our distinguished Host Committee, chaired by Casey Wasserman and organized by the Mayor’s Fund for Los Angeles to welcome the delegations to the Summit, helped to showcase Los Angeles’ spirit and engaged civic and philanthropic leaders with the Summit.

The Ninth Summit - only the second to take place in the United States – called on us to put our collective heads and hearts together and forge a vision and a plan for how we build a more sustainable, equitable and resilient future.

I’m proud to say we made great strides towards this ambitious goal – sharing ideas and strategies with subnational, national and global leaders – and I want to share some of the highlights with you today:

THE LOS ANGELES DECLARATION ON MIGRATION AND PROTECTION

Through the Declaration, national leaders of the Western Hemisphere will strengthen the region’s commitment to humane, practical, and orderly migration. 

Los Angeles will continue working with federal, state and NGO partners to address migration with dignity and respect.

INAUGURAL CITIES SUMMIT OF THE AMERICAS AND CITIES FORWARD

I’ve often said cities are the laboratories of change, and I’m thrilled that the U.S State Department announced they will convene an inaugural Cities Summit of the Americas, to be hosted next April in Denver, where local leaders from the Americas and the Caribbean will meet to map our shared goals for the future. 

The Administration also announced the creation of the Cities Forward initiative, a city-led effort to share knowledge around solving urban issues with equity, climate resiliency, and sustainability.

MAYORS SUMMIT: SHARED CHALLENGES, SHARED SOLUTIONS

I was pleased to join more than a dozen invited mayors from across the U.S. and the region to discuss local progress on two of the global issues facing our cities: designing our resilience to the impacts of climate change and welcoming migrants by building inclusive communities. 

This event, co-hosted by the Inter-American Dialogue and the Development Bank of Latin America, identified opportunities for collaboration ahead of next year’s inaugural Cities Summit of the Americas. 

During the Summit, I met with the President of Chile Gabriel Boric Font to discuss ways we could collaborate on water scarcity - a topic we’re all too familiar with in California. 

After an expert briefing by the General Manager and Assistant General Manager of the LA Department of Water and Power, the Chilean Minister of Foreign Affairs and I signed a memorandum of understanding to continue to collaborate on water conservation and exchange our respective strategies to address drought. 

Chile, the United States, and seven additional countries along the Pacific also formed the “Americas for the Protection of the Ocean" coalition to create protected marine corridors and conserve at least 30% of the Pacific Ocean by 2030.

SHOWCASING L.A. AS A GLOBAL HUB FOR CLIMATE ACTION AND INNOVATION

CEO Summit of the Americas
After watching President Biden deliver remarks at the CEO Summit, I joined Special President Envoy for Climate John Kerry, Global Head of Sustainability at Amazon Kara Hurst, and CEO of Citi Latin America Ernesto Cantu to discuss “Climate Action in the Americas.” I also participated in a strategic policy dialogue on sustainability with five ministers and twenty companies from the region

L.A. Cleantech Incubator
To share best practices in public-private partnerships for climate at the local, national, and international levels, I co-hosted with Global LA a roundtable discussion with Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry, Mayor of Bogotá Claudia Lopez, and LA climate leaders from the private sector and civil society at the L.A. Cleantech Incubator (LACI). 

Participants, including SPEC Kerry, experienced LA’s own zero-emission bus fleet to travel from the Financial District to the Arts District for the event. 

Global LA
During the Summit, Global LA, a public-private partnership for inclusive international investment that I helped create, launched its online platform, supported the CEO Summit, and engaged with hundreds of companies to support responsible and sustainable economic development and jobs in the L.A. region.

CELEBRATING OUR CULTURAL TIES
I had the immense pleasure of joining the U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Ken Salazar to celebrate the installation of the Wings of Mexico by artist Jorge Marín at the Griffith Observatory. The sculpture is a gift from L.A.’s sister city Mexico City and a symbol of friendship and unity between the cities and the United States and Mexico.

If the past few years have taught us anything, it’s that we’re all more connected than our laws or politics would sometimes have us believe.

Viruses, storms and droughts… they know no borders. They remind us why we must make good on our shared vision for a more sustainable, equitable and resilient future for our cities, country, hemisphere and world.

Strength and love to all,

Eric Garcetti
Your Mayor