C40 chairperson and mayor of Rio de Janeiro Eduardo Paes on Wednesday announced that the city of Cape Town, in South Africa, Dar es Salaam, in Tanzania and Nairobi, in Kenya, had joined the C40 network, bringing the number of C40-affiliated African cities to seven.

With these three cities added, the total number of C40 cities stood at 66, he told a press conference at the C40 Summit in Sandton, Johannesburg.

Paes also announced that a letter had been delivered to the UN’s Open Working Group (OWG) on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), requesting a specific SDG focused on cities and their ability to deliver significant reductions in greenhouse-gas emissions.

The UN OWG SDGs would come into effect upon the expiration of the Millennium Development Goals in 2015 and would be in place until 2030.

The letter also requested that the OWG continue to make the case for greater emphasis on urban sustainability and climate protection in the international sustainability conversation.

Thirty-eight mayors had signed onto this petition "demonstrating a steadfast commitment to ensure local leaders had a voice on the international stage to guarantee a sustainable future", which was one of Paes’ key priorities for his term as C40 chair.

Further, Paes also said C40 would soon be launching a new city director programme, through which on-the-ground staff resources would be deployed to chosen cities to support the implementation of locally identified top climate priorities.