The European Committee of the Regions (CoR) and other local and regional authority partners called for “regionally and locally determined contributions”, while advocating a multi-level approach to tackling climate change, on Friday 12 November at the 26th session of the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow.
These contributions would be in addition to the ‘nationally determined contributions’ (NDCs) representing the individual greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reduction targets of the countries that signed the Paris Agreement, says the statement issued by the CoR.
The aim: “reinforce the formal recognition of the role of subnational governments in the fight against climate change”.
Call for multi-level climate governance
The statement further calls on the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to call on the parties at COP26 to “systematically intensify their efforts towards effective multi-level climate governance”. This message was hammered home by the six members of the CoR delegation present in Glasgow.
At the time of going to press, the local and regional authorities represented at the COP had managed to include a reference to their role in the draft decisions of the conference.
The draft text thus recognises “the important role of a broad range of stakeholders at the local, national and regional level” in combating and responding to climate change, and stresses “the urgent need for multilevel and cooperative action”.
It also urges the parties at COP26 to “further integrate adaptation [to climate change] into local, national and regional planning”.
It remains to be seen whether the final text will include these references. These had been deleted in an earlier version of the draft decisions, only to be reintroduced at the request of the CoR, on behalf of the Local Governments and Municipal Authorities constituency.
“We worryingly notice that there is no longer a reference to multi-level action nor reference to local and regional authorities”, said Andries Gryffroy, member of the Flemish Parliament (Belgium), on Thursday 11 November, during the COP26 plenary session.
“Despite the fact the local and regional governments are responsible for 70% of climate mitigation measures, and 90% of climate adaptation measures, our repeated efforts to make our views heard were properly not taken into consideration by those who represented the EU in Glasgow”, said CoR President Apostolos Tzitzikostas on Friday 12 November during an event at the COP.
Asked by EUROPE about the progress made in recognising the role of cities and regions at the COPs, Juan Espadas, Mayor of Seville and President of the CoR’s Commission for the Environment, Climate Change and Energy (ENVE), said that although progress had been made, it was still too slow in view of the climate emergency.
See the statement: https://bit.ly/3Cc3zcD (Original version in French by Damien Genicot)