Delivered by Carlos de Freitas, Executive Director – FMDV
Watch his Intervention (at 01:26:00)
Excellencies,
Distinguished Champions, colleagues, friends,
I am Carlos de Freitas, from FMDV – Global Fund for Cities Development, delivering this statement on behalf of the Local Governments and Municipal Authorities – LGMA Constituency.
We want to express our appreciation for the extraordinary work that has brought us to this moment. The new five-year strategy for the Global Climate Action Agenda marks a turning point. It strengthens the architecture that so many of us have helped build for a decade, and it does so with clarity, ambition and humility.
COP30 Presidency has shown first of its kind leadership and strong understanding of real life needs by calling for a move from negotiation to action. And by supporting and highlighting cities, state and regional governments before and throughout COP30; in particular under the dedicated Axis 4 on Building Resilience for Cities, Infrastructure and Water that has shown momentum and translated into several Plans to Accelerate Solutions, but also the 4 th Ministerial Meeting on Urbanization and Climate Change here in Belem.
We pay tribute to the Climate Champions, the UNFCCC Secretariat and Past Presidencies, whose leadership made the Marrakech Partnership a true ecosystem of cooperation.
Ten years after the Paris Agreement, we enter a new generation of convergence and implementation.
A generation where Parties, cities, regions, civil society, business, communities and finance recognise that implementation only succeeds when we act together, each with our own mandate, but aligned in purpose. But this will not be the COP of Implementation without the implementers at the heart of it. For this to truly be the historic COP that accelerates implementation, a space for subnationals, urbanization and multilevel governance has to be recognised in the negotiated outcomes, on top of recognizing the key role of local and regional governments in the NDCs implementation.
In the lead up to today there have been strong words about bringing in the implementers but nothing has changed in the outcomes shared by the Presidency: subnational governments are still to be kept on the outside. The current text reinforces the status quo and fails to move us towards implementation, as promised.
Subnational implementation has been taking place for decades. Now a formalised dialogue is needed to leverage and reflect these contributions within the UN process. We know parties have been calling for it and many are supportive.
As we close this session, our message is simple: we honour the path that brought us here, we stand fully committed to deliver in the present, however we need clear space in formal outcomes to ensure that our efforts under the Action Agenda count towards the second Global Stocktake, complementing Party efforts within a transparent, coherent and forward-driving framework.
Because when cities, regions, communities, sectors, Parties and Champions move in concert, as a Mutirao, we drive progress and ownership, we bridge the future, and we bring it within reach.
Thank you.
