Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson and actor/activist Robert Redford co-host the three-day Sundance Summit: A Mayors' Gathering on Climate Protection, beginning Sunday.

But a dinnertime address Monday by climate change guru Al Gore, the 2000 Democratic nominee for president, will be off-limits to guests and the media. The event's exclusivity is by design, explained spokeswoman Jill Rosenblum Tidman.

"The reason the session is closed," she said, "is so that he and the mayors can have a really candid discussion."

Forty-five mayors are expected to attend the invitation-only event to learn how local leadership can tackle a global problem, the man-made activities blamed for causing dramatic increases in worldwide temperatures. Besides Anderson, Salt Lake County Mayor Peter Carroon has RSVP'd.

"No other Utah cities were invited to the event," Tidman said.

One featured speaker, former U.S. Energy Secretary and New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, on Friday cancelled his appearance.

The mayors - who come from Alaska, Hawaii, Vermont, North Carolina and cities of all sizes in between - either have a track record of dealing with climate change or are eager to learn what they can do. Also sponsoring the event is the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives.

More than 650 local governments around the world participate in ICLEI's Cities for Climate Protection program. Last year, 156 U.S. cities involved in the program worked together to cut emissions blamed for global warming by 23 million tons and saved $600 million, ICLEI said. About a dozen workshops will provide case studies and how-to kits for the mayors.

In one, Mayor Richard Daley will talk about his Greening Chicago program, which spruced up the city with trees and parks. Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels will talk about his efforts through the U.S. Conference of Mayors.

Peter Cole of Salt Lake City's Squatters Pub Brewery will be part of a panel on the benefits to business in controlling climate change.

Anderson, who has made presentations on global warming at United Nations and G8 meetings, is set to speak on his efforts locally. A longtime trustee of the Natural Resources Defense Council, Redford hosted a similar climate change meeting, Greenhouse Glasnost, at Sundance in 1989.

Gore recently has called on leaders to reduce energy consumption and temper other human impacts on warming. Last December, he told an audience of 1,200 at Harvard University: "We have to use our deliberative processes and our democracy to talk with each other about our crisis - and it is a crisis."

fahys@sltrib.com