Local action for global change: Greens in the CoR at COP27

‘Thinking globally, acting locally’ was underpinning a lot of the work of the Greens in the CoR at the UNFCCC Climate Conference COP27 in November 2022. While nation states negotiated on their contribution to the global implementation of the Paris agreement, cities and regions across the globe were demonstrating how they already make a change and demanded further recognition of this role. The Greens in the CoR delegate Marieke Schouten, alderman of the city of Niewegein, was one of the representatives of Europe’s regional and local authorities, on site in Sharm-el-Sheik (Egypt).

Impacts of climate change are felt in cities and regions. Large territorial differences can be seen also within individual countries caused by other vulnerabilities linked to physical geography, socio-economic factors, and other factors. For example, urban areas, where 70​% of the world’s population live, face differing challenges from rural agricultural lands. The only success of COP27 was the establishment of the loss and damage fund, in order to compensate the most vulnerable states for the irreparable damage already caused by climate change. In future reparations, territorial differences should be considered also from a sub-national perspective.

The focus on loss and damage was extremely important in order to hold developed countries accountable for the problems they’ve exported to the developing areas of the world, which bear the brunt of the climate crisis. While setting up a loss and damage facility, we must also keep pushing for deep reforms in our societies and economies, adapting to and mitigating climate change, in order to limit warming to 1.5 degrees. Climate and environmental scientists say every fraction of a centigrade of less warming helps to slow down the process, and allows nature the chance to adapt better. If no additional mitigation measures are taken, the world will continue to see more and more of irreparable damage.

Solutions are found and continuously developed in cities and regions. While nation states are talking and failing to increase their collective climate ambitions, mayors and local leaders are at the front lines of ensuring their communities are adapting as best as possible. With the majority of the world population living in cities, cities can also take significant measures to limit emissions, therefore playing a crucial role in climate change mitigation and in achieving the Paris Agreement objectives. Moreover, they are test beds for innovation and solution-oriented. Concrete actions are demanded of mayors and local leaders, and they are held directly accountable by citizens. Many local and regional leaders have strong climate ambitions, often more ambitious than national ones.

The CoR delegation to COP27 worked closely with the LGMA constituency and with the Special Envoy of Cities, Mayor of Utrecht Sharon Dijksma, to push for recognition of the efforts of local and regional authorities. The years of advocacy have shown results, as the Egyptian presidency of COP27 agreed to host a first ever ministerial meeting on urbanisation and climate change, organised by UN Habitat in collaboration with the LGMA constituency. The global local leaders demonstrated their collective strength as they marched together to the ministerial. The CoR also contributed to the launch of the COP27 Presidency Sustainable Urban Resilience for the next Generation (SURGe) initiative, and delivered the LGMA statement at the COP27 Closing Plenary.

Combined with the inclusion of cities as a new theme in the Global Goal on Adaptation, the cover decision now includes a separate subtheme on ‘Enhancing implementation: action by non-Party stakeholders’ with 6 paragraphs on multilevel action and engagement with non-state actors. In total, there are more than 24 specific references to the role of subnational governments throughout the documents, including cities, towns and regions. Agreed on by nearly 200 countries, the COP27 decisions, along with other COP27 outcomes, enshrined ‘multilevel and cooperation action’ as a new normal for how the Paris Agreement can be implemented.

Recognising the importance of multilevel action is an important step forward, but an official seat at the negotiation table is still lacking, making it difficult to reflect the territorial nature of climate action. Preventing true multilevel cooperation and action is the view of hierarchical levels of governance. As highlighted multiple times by Marieke Schouten, all levels of governance from local, regional, national to international, should be seen in parallel. They each make a change at their own levels, and are all accountable to their constituencies, whose voice they represent.

While the EU strives to be a leader in climate action, COP27 also gave an opportunity to step back and to see the global nature of climate change and the many and diverse actors of change across the globe.​ Together with the LGMA Constituency and global networks​, the CoR calls for the full engagement of subnational governments on the path to climate neutrality and a sustainable future.