Cisco will extend its reach to additional cities and business partners around the world to explore how information and communications technology (ICT) can help address urban climate change and energy challenges.

Cisco and the Connected Urban Development (CUD) partner cities have also engaged The Climate Group to launch the CUD Alliance, which aims to create a sustainable program to deliver integrated, ICT-enabled urban climate-change solutions in areas such as connected buildings, transportation, and energy management. The announcement was made in conjunction with the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) annual meeting.

The Climate Group and Cisco have established the CUD Alliance to extend the reach of the CUD community to additional public- and private-sector partners from around the world. The CUD Alliance will build on the success of CUD, The Climate Group’s city focus and the recommendations of the SMART2020 report, to create a forum for the development of globally relevant demonstration programs. The programs will focus on delivering low-carbon solutions through systems integration, policy and financing.

The CUD Alliance will concentrate on three main areas: developing new partnerships to implement pilot projects at the city level; creating a platform to encourage common ICT standards for low-carbon urban solutions; and scaling existing projects and resources across a growing number of world cities to reduce carbon emissions.

Cisco has contributed $15 million to CUD over the past three years as part of its commitment to the CGI. Cisco’s Internet Business Solutions Group (IBSG) has created pilot projects with seven CUD cities: Amsterdam, the Netherlands; San Francisco, California; Seoul, South Korea; Birmingham, England; Hamburg, Germany; Lisbon, Portugal; and Madrid, Spain. Cisco will expand its engagement to other cities, particularly those in developing nations and the Eastern Hemisphere.

These projects may serve as incubators for the energy and environmental aspects of Cisco’s Smart+Connected Communities initiative, which addresses the growing need for sustainable energy by providing a network-enabled blueprint for successful smart cities of the future.

The CUD program has enabled seven innovative pilots over the last three years. Smart Transportation Pricing (STP) in Seoul; Urban EcoMap and The Connected Bus in the City and County of San Francisco; Personal Travel Assistant (PTA) in Seoul and Amsterdam; Smart UrbanEnergy for Schools in Lisbon; UrbanEnergy Management in Madrid; Smart Work Centers (SWCs) in Almere and Amsterdam.