Thank you Co-Chair, the LGMA welcomed the topic of the 5th JTWP dialogue, as food systems and food security are central to our member cities and other subnational governments and to their climate and social agendas.
The Dialogue and the informal summary captured well “the growing importance of the urban and periurban dimension of food security”. With over 76% of those facing hunger living in urban and peri-urban areas, subnational governments and local authorities are important actors in food system transitions, yet with very limited access to climate finance as evidenced by paragraph 69.
“Local governments are the closest to food insecure communities and uniquely placed to ensure that national commitments are translated into locally responsive implementation” as supported by para 96.
Additionally, we were pleased to see how key messages from the 5th JTWP Dialogue captured the importance of policy coherence and a strong emphasis on the whole-of-government and whole-of-society approaches and the need for a stronger collaboration across all levels of government as evidenced by paragraph 95.
Building on this and in line with the multilevel approach elevated by Colombia and a need for a collaboration across different levels of government and engagement with local governments highlighted by Japan, New Zealand, Chile on behalf of AILAC, Ghana on behalf of AGN and Switzerland on behalf of EIG, the LGMA constituency encourages Parties to include a reference to the role that subnational governments play in advancing just transitions and to a multilevel approach in the COP31 decision as critical to the design and to the operationalisation of the just transition mechanism and in the review of the the Just Transition Work Programme.
This aligns with the Global Stocktake decision, paragraph 161 and 162 which highlighted the need to accelerate delivery though multilevel action and encouraged international cooperation and the exchange of views and experiences among non-Party stakeholders at the local, subnational, national and regional levels.
