van Staden, Maryke

Maryke is a South African based at the ICLEI World Secretariat in Bonn, Germany. She coordinates the global low-carbon strategy for ICLEI, working with all Regional and Country Offices around the globe. This includes rolling out the new GreenClimateCities initiative, a methodology and campaign for local governments - based on 20 years of ICLEI experience with local climate action through the Cities for Climate Protection (CCP) Campaign.

Further, she manages the Low-carbon Team at the World Secretariat and oversees international projects and initiatives on climate change and sustainable energy at local community level. Here the focus is on a few key areas:

- global advocacy, representing local governments in various international fora;
- the development of protocols and standards relevant to local governments and climate change;
- training and mobilising local decision-makers and municipal staff on climate change mitigation strategies, conducting GHG inventories and developing Action Plans; and
- managing ICLEI tools and guidance material, including HEAT+, the latest greenhouse gas accounting software.

Building on a decade of policy research and security, she has worked on local climate, energy and air quality activities for more than 12 years, 7 of these at the ICLEI European Secretariat where she led the Climate Team and dealt with European projects. Prior to her engagement at ICLEI Europe, she led the Scientific Projects for the International Solar Energy Society (ISES) addressing the roll-out of renewable energy sources globally.

Maryke is a Member of the Trans-disciplinary Board (TAB) for JPI Climate. She is a visiting lecturer at the University of Venice (UIAV), Italy, and regularly contributes to the Local Government Section of the REN 21 Global Status Report and other publications.