Climate Change Negotiations Breakthrough for Local Governments

The role of local governments in Climate Change negotiations has now been acknowledged through 100 significant explicit references in the negotiating text under discussion in preparation for the UNFCCC negotiations in Copenhagen in December this year.  The local governments’ role is acknowledged in all chapters, namely: long-term cooperative action, adaptation, mitigation and action on financing, technology and capacity-building.

To access the negotiating text, click here 

The Participants in the Local Government Climate Change Leadership Summit held in Copenhagen from 2 – 4 June this year agreed to put forward concrete requests and amendments to the Climate Change text currently under discussion. Many national local governments associations and individual local governments have sent letters to their governments and have also met the national delegations in the negotiations. Both initiatives have largely contributed to the above breakthrough. 

It is now critical for local governments to ensure that the above mentioned references do not disappear in the negotiations. For this purpose, the UCLGA join the UCLG in urging local governments to concentrate their effort on retaining the references in the text under discussion. 

Local governments must ensure that they are part of upcoming rounds of negotiations scheduled as follows:   

• 10 to 14 August in Bonn

• 29 September to 9 October in Bangkok

• 2 to 6 November in Barcelona 

Prior to the above, the next Climate Change engagement for African local governments is the African Local Government Climate Roadmap Pre-Copenhagen Summit taking place in Tshwane (Pretoria) from 29 – 31 July. Hosted by the UCLGA in partnership with ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability, the Summit forms part of the Local Government Climate Roadmap process which aims to mobilise and strengthen the involvement of Local Governments in the climate debate towards a strong post-2012 Climate Agreement and the implementation there-of.

The aim of this African Summit is to facilitate a horizontal and vertical mobilisation towards concrete action and a consolidated voice from African local governments regarding the UN Climate Framework. This is will be achieved by providing an accessible platform for African local governments to unpack the climate debate, the practical implications, priorities and needs for action at the local level and to gain an understanding of the role and position of Local Governments in the post-2012 Climate Framework negotiations. 

The aim of this African Summit is to facilitate a horizontal and vertical mobilisation towards concrete action and a consolidated voice from African local governments regarding the UN Climate Framework. This is will be achieved by providing an accessible platform for African local governments to unpack the climate debate, the practical implications, priorities and needs for action at the local level and to gain an understanding of the role and position of Local Governments in the post-2012 Climate Framework negotiations. 

For more information on the African Local Government Climate Roadmap Pre-Copenhagen Summit, kindly contact:

Mr. Charles Patsika
Email: ckpatsika@uclgafrica.org

Additional information made available by the UCLG World Secretariat