Delivered by Yunus Arikan, LGMA Focal Point
22 November
Let me begin by commending and congratulating the people and governments of the City of Belém, State of Pará, and Brazil, for their hospitality and professionalism in hosting COP30 in Amazonia – and particularly Ambassador André Corrêa do Lago for his passion, wisdom and leadership as well as countless colleagues in the whole COP30 Presidency team.
Thousands of local and regional leaders and their networks who came to Brazil for the Local Leaders Forum in Rio and COP30 in Belém responded to the call for an implementation COP.
The outcomes of the 4th Urbanization and Climate Ministerial elevated our collaboration with national governments.
We have felt genuine recognition for the importance of local action, multilevel cooperation and urbanization through the ministerials, progress on Action Agenda and through numerous parties calling for a mandated dialogue.
Cities, states and regions will continue to lead transitioning away from fossil fuels and confronting the realities of climate impacts , but they need support to further scale up their actions.
The Mutirão text “Cities and other subnational authorities in multilevel climate action” presents a valuable basis to advance multilevel action and urbanization achievements beyond Belém. We also note increasing references to multilevel action in Mitigation Work Programme, and Adaptation.
We warmly welcome the creation of a Just Transition Mechanism in Belém. And we stand ready to contribute to it.
Yet we need to go further than recognition and references. Not putting the implementers at the heart of the Belém Package slows the pace of national transitions at precisely the moment when we need it to accelerate.
The goal to make this the COP of Truth was the right one — but the target was not reached fully. The work of cities, states and regions demonstrate that there is no better way to close the ambition gap.
Many examples of multilevel NDCs 3.0 give us hope beyond Belém. We look forward to working with the COP30 Presidency and all other nations and partners to implement the outcomes of COP30 by putting multilevel action and urbanization at the service of global climate implementation, in particular towards the outcomes of IPCC Special Report on Cities in 2027.
Obrigado.
