How will regions be involved in COP21?

The world’s intermediate governments have an essential role in the 21st United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP21), which will take place between the 30th November and the 11th December in Le Bourget, a village north of Paris. There are high hopes that this event will result in the International Community reaching an agreement on a new world climate regime able to limit global warming to 2°C. 

In the context of regional governments, ORU supports four initiatives aimed at tackling climate change, which have been put forward by nrg4SD, the network of regions for sustainable development that will represent ORU and its members in the Summit. The first one is RegionsAdapt, lead by the Government of Catalonia and the State of Rio de Janeiro, which sets out to establish a cooperation framework enabling regions to share their practices for combating climate change. The next one is Under 2 MOU, an agreement under which the subnational governments undertake to collectively reducing emissions by 2050, to which approximately 60 regions and cities from 19 countries have already adhered. The Climate Group (TCG), nrg4SD, CDP and Regions of Climate Action (R20) lead the Compact of States and Regions, a UN-supported initiative providing the first global account of greenhouse gas reduction targets made by regional governments. The last initiative is Paris Action Statement, a declaration calling for the creation of a new working strategy increasing the number of action plans of subnational governments on the issue of climate change.

All these projects will be presented at the COP21 events, in which ORU will also actively take part. Furthermore, the 5th December has been set as “Climate Action Day” and the 8th December as “Regions and Cities Day”, both devoted to the actions of non-governmental actors in combating climate change.