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From the LGMA Focal Point to the UNFCCC
Welcome to the first edition of a new monthly bulletin from ICLEI as the focal organization for the Local Governments and Municipal Authorities (LGMA) Group to the UNFCCC. Each month, we will share the insights and opportunities that will prepare our constituency for engaging in the global advocacy agenda throughout the year and in the leadup to COP28. Click here and select "LGMA Monthly bulletin" to confirm you wish to continue receiving our updates.
We welcome contributions from our LGMA partners. Send submissions to lgma@iclei.org by 13 March to be considered for inclusion in the next release. This mailing complements the monthly LGMA webinar series. Register for the 10am or 4pm CE(S)T events to join us each month.
If you are largely engaging with us for the first time (or this bulletin re-energizes you), welcome! The LGMA has been following the climate agenda since 1995 — present at the first COP and many more milestone moments since. Today, we are more than 50 UNFCCC-accredited networks representing cities and regions who intervene throughout a busy calendar to ensure that the voice of local governments are heard loud and clear in and around the negotiating tables. I encourage you to read how we work and follow along at Cities-and-Regions.org. Thank you for being involved.
Yunus Arikan
ICLEI Director of Global Advocacy
LGMA Focal Point
LGMA Roadmap towards COP28
The LGMA’s busy advocacy calendar culminates in November/December with COP28 in Dubai, but is marked by key moments all year long, across three agendas: United Nations and UNFCCC events, events hosted globally or by nations, and those hosted by our own constituency organizations.
Key LGMA takeaways from COP27
1. The GOOD
With climate action now firmly based on two strong footings—following COP26 (Ambition) and COP27 (Climate Justice) conclusions—the successful delivery of the second phase of the Paris Agreement depends on finance, governance, and capacity building.
2. The ESSENTIAL
After our recent successes, from Loss-and-Damage to the SURGe initiative, the first Climate and Urbanization Ministerial, local-level contributions approved for the Global Stocktake, Article 6, ACE, Adaptation, local references in NDCs, and various national/supra-national initiatives, multilevel action is becoming the new normal for the climate community at the national and global levels, empowered by transformative impacts of sustainable urbanization.
3. The INEVITABLE
The technical and political challenges around attending COP27 and a reported 50,000 potential attendees going to COP28 highlight the need for the UNFCCC, the COPs, and decision-making processes by Parties to engage stakeholders in new ways that align with the realities of the 21st Century and the spirit of the Paris Agreement.
How the LGMA will advance #MultilevelActionDelivers
Operationalize the Sustainable Urban Resilience for the Next Generation (SURGe) Initiative
Localize the Global Stocktake through #Stocktake4ClimateEmergency
Accelerate UNFCCC engagement throughout the year and expanded Multilevel Action Pavilion
Make a local contribution to the Global Stocktake with #Stocktake4ClimateEmergency
At last year’s Bonn Climate Conference in June, the UNFCCC recognized that local governments should be official contributors to the Paris Agreement's Global Stocktake process. Our group is essential to seizing this opportunity! Under the banner of #Stocktake4ClimateEmergency, the LGMA-led local stocktake process is a series of events to turn City Halls, Town Halls, and Regional Parliaments into mini-COP venues ahead of COP28. Listen to LGMA Focal Point Yunus Arikan´s intervention at the closing plenary of Global Stocktake Technical Dialogue at COP27 (starting from 2:27:45) to understand the 3-part logic of the events: focus on urban aspects of NDCs, local and regionally determined contributions for climate emergency/neutrality, and climate justice.
Local governments have a first-ever direct path to contributing to the Paris Agreement's Global Stocktake. ICLEI has everything you need to host a #Stocktake4ClimateEmergency event on or around Earth Day 2023. Access the toolkit and join our overview webinar on 16 March at 11:00 EST.
Alongside its shortfalls, the greatest accomplishment of COP27 was the creation of a Loss and Damage Fund. Look back at COP27 through the lenses of cities and regions.
At the first-ever Ministerial Meeting on Urbanization and Climate Change, the COP27 Presidency, in collaboration with UN-Habitat and ICLEI, launched the SURGe Initiative to transform cities through multi-level governance.
According to the European Committee of the Regions, subnational governments still lack a formal role in global climate negotiations and in the implementation of the Paris agreement.
We are already starting initial plans for the LGMA Multilevel Action Pavilion at COP28! Are you interested in hosting an event at the pavilion? Let us know!
The Chilean Association of Cities has signed an agreement with ICLEI South America to promote sustainable development and the country’s Climate Change Framework Law binding goal of net zero emissions by 2050 at the latest.
This offers a global analysis of the urban content of 193 Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) submitted to the UNFCCC Secretariat before the 19 June 2022.
This playbook recommends key elements of an enabling environment that can spur local and regional ambition into Party policy developments to accelerate vertically integrated NDCs.
On 11 November, ICLEI, UNCDF and FMDV launched a paper that presents opportunities for action by different key actors to support subnational governments and local climate action.
The Summary for Urban Policymakers (SUP)Initiative is a series of three summary reports distilled from the IPCC Working Group I, II, and III reports.
Events and announcements
Yunus Arikan, Director of ICLEI Global Advocacy, orients local and regional governments on the important issues of multilevel governance and progress in the global climate negotiations. Every month, Yunus will be highlighting developments and key topics from the global climate arena.
Join us on 29 March at 10:00 or 16:00 CEST.