From a COP of commitments to the COP of solutions
1 November 2016
Since COP21 last December, a lot has been achieved politically for climate: in less than one year, the Paris Agreement on climate has been adopted, ratified by 100 countries – including the main ones responsible for greenhouse gas emissions – and just entered into force on November 4th!
This year’s COP22 (Marrakech, 7-18 November) has therefore became de facto the COP of solutions and implementation. Indeed, as it stands today, the Paris Agreement and the Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) still fall short of limiting global warming to 2°C. But that is probably due to untapped local action for climate.
Gathering at the 2016 Climate Summit for Local and Regional Leaders (Marrakech, November 14th), local elected representatives from all over the world will share their practical solutions to achieve the Paris Agreement. This years’ local summit, coined “Financing the Sustainable Transition of Territories”, will focus on concrete ways and tools for local and regional governments worldwide to access or mobilise the financial means to undertake the necessary sustainable transition policies.
PLATFORMA and its partners will actively participate to COP22 and the Climate Summit for Local and Regional Leaders (#LRL4C), and promote innovative ways to finance climate related decentralised cooperation. One of the main initiatives, discussed and approved during the last meeting of the national associations of the Council of European Municipalities and Regions (CEMR), is the Europeanisation of the “1% solidarity” mechanism. A mechanism to allocate up to 1% of the tax revenues of a dedicated sector (water, waste or electricity) to finance a decentralised cooperation project with a partner in the same sector. This mechanism can be particularly critical to leverage additional public or private funds for international cooperation activities.
How to to scale up climate decentralised cooperation?
On the 15th of November, a side event organised by PLATFORMA in the green zone (Agora of the Cities and territories pavilion, from 9.30 to 11.00) will precisely analyse the different possibilities to scale up climate decentralised cooperation (territorial, political, institutional, multi-stakeholder and financial upscaling). Among the speakers who will share best practices are: Marie-Pierre Bresson, Deputy-Mayor of Lille (France), Ndiouga Sakho, President of the Sustainable development committee at the city of Dakar (Senegal) and Juan Espadas, Mayor of Sevilla (Spain) (TBC).
For more information, check the website of the COP22 & of the Climate Summit for Local and Regional Leaders.
