The regions will be very present at COP27 in Egypt

The regions will be present in the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP27) that will be held from November 6 to 18, 2022 in Sharm el-Sheikh, Arab Republic of Egypt. The conference will be an important moment as it will focus on the implementation of the commitments made at COP26 in Glasgow and will take place in Africa, with a strong focus on resilience and adaptation.

ORU Fogar, in collaboration with Regions4, will be present all possible events within the Conference, to defend the interests of the regions. And both, the president of ORU Fogar, Rachid el Abdi, and the vice-president Laurent Wauquiez have announced their presence. With Regions4 and the International Association of Francophone Regions (AIRF), ORU Fogar is also preparing a Side Event in the blue zone for the second week of the COP (There is a tendency to organize and participate in city, regional, NGO and society events during the second week of the COP, that is, around Monday 14 to Wednesday 16 November).

More than ever, it is essential that regional governments are represented, included, and benefit from climate commitments made by governments, to enable accelerated action and financing for adaptation at the regional level. 

For this COP27, Regions4 has prepared the Rabat Salé Kénitra Declaration of regional governments for COP27“Regions for a resilient future: leading a transformative action for the planet, people and prosperity”. This declaration will help shape the regions' message for COP27, contribute to the global climate balance, and inform negotiations on the adaptation goal. The declaration will be launched at COP27.

The Declaration affirms that it is necessary to “take urgent measures to mitigate Climate Change and adapt to it in order to avoid new crises”. An innovative document when, recognizing that extreme weather events have caused some irreversible impacts, it calls for "recognizing the loss and damage agenda, especially for vulnerable regions." What is not innovative is when, again, the document asks the parties to "allow regional governments to directly access international climate financing opportunities, especially for African regions." And as a conclusion to all this, the Declaration commits the regions "to accelerate actions to simultaneously improve the preservation of biodiversity and promote the adaptation and mitigation of climate change".