Opinion Factsheet 

call for a formal and official recognition of the role of subnational governments in the fight against climate change;

promote the formal recognition of Regionally and Locally Determined Contributions (RLDCs) both in mitigation and in adaptation targets;

underline the importance of accelerating adaptation actions by sub-national governments and move towards a more comprehensive global framework;

stress the importance of making direct funding available for subnational governments to deliver climate action and face the effects of climate change;

reinforce the recognition of the CoR as interlocutor in the definition of the EU mandate at UNFCCC COPs.

Successful participation of the CoR delegation at UNFCCC COP27 in Egypt;
24 references to the role of local and regional authorities in fighting climate change in COP27 decision documents;
Participation in COP27 side events and dissemination of good practices;
Increased recognition of the role of the CoR with EU institutions: 26 amendments in the European Parliament Resolution for COP27 and paragraph in the Council Conclusions.

THE EUROPEAN COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS



- highlights that the objective of global energy security is not to be considered an alternative to the Paris Agreement and calls on the Parties to speed up the shift to an energy system fully powered by renewable energy and promote energy sufficiency;

- recalls that local and regional authorities (LRAs) are responsible for providing their communities with essential services and immediate responses and relief to the consequences of climate change, such as climate-related disasters, social impacts such as energy poverty and increasing weather-related health problems, and existing inequalities that climate change deepens;

- underlines the unique position of the CoR as a driver for the implementation of climate actions at the local level and its readiness to cooperate and partner with European institutions and Parties of the Paris Agreement to further multilevel cooperation on the way to COP27 and beyond;

- reiterates the need for the formal inclusion of Regionally and Locally Determined Contributions (RLDCs), to complement the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs);

- welcomes the Glasgow-Sharm el-Sheikh work programme for the Global Goal on Adaptation (GGA) and highlights that LRAs are the most suitable actors to define adaptation goals, as they retain first-hand knowledge of resilience needs and solutions;

- stresses the importance of making direct funding available for LRAs to deliver climate action, as well as the need for LRAs to partner with the private sector and financial institutions;

- notes that vulnerable groups are the ones who suffer the most from the negative impacts of the climate-related crisis; underlines that a just transition needs to fully accommodate the social effects through designated support and funding, as also called for by the 2030 Agenda;

- calls on the UNFCCC Secretariat to establish a structured cooperation with the CoR to facilitate cooperation between the two institutions.