Climate and energy transition

The Council of European Municipalities and Regions (CEMR) welcomes the United Nations (UN) climate decision (Cancun, COP16), which recognises stakeholders as also being governmental,.thereby considering local and regional authorities as main actors in the fight against climate change.

 

'For the first time in history," declared CEMR Secretary General, Frédéric Vallier, 'and notably thanks to the work undertaken by United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG) and CEMR, municipalities and regions are no longer placed on the same level as NGOs but are rather considered as -governmental stakeholders'. This recognition is all-the-more vital in that local and regional authorities are at the forefront of climate change action when compared to national governments, as they provide local solutions to global challenges."

This official recognition, voted in at the occasion of the UN Climate Change Conference in Cancun, Mexico, from 29 November to 10 December 2010, is the first of its kind. It will notably help strengthen the role of local and regional authorities in the fight against climate change and increase the financial capacity needed to maintain and further develop climate actions.

Vice-Mayor of Nantes, France, and Climate Spokesperson for UCLG, Ronan Dantec, explained that it is a question of the credibility of the climate talks to recognise cities as being vital in the efficient and speedy reduction of carbon emissions.

CEMR thus calls for the next step to be, at the occasion of the Climate Change Conference in Durban, South Africa, from 28 November to 9 December 2011, to elaborate a new legally binding CO2 emissions reduction agreement to bridge the gap between the soon-to-be expired Kyoto protocol and a new commitment period.