What needs to happen in Week 2 to keep the drumbeat going
“The presence of governors and mayors is the most important, because subnational governments play an absolutely crucial role in implementing the decisions made at the COPs,” said COP30 President Ambassador André Corrêa do Lago on 10 November, during COP30’s ceremonial opening. His words were echoed by President of Brazil Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who underscored that climate action demands unity and collective determination, fully aligned with the mutirão spirit.
With this high-level backing, cities and regions entered Week 1 of COP30 on solid ground. Days earlier, subnational leaders met in Rio de Janeiro for the COP30 Local Leaders Forum, which resulted in a Joint Outcome Statement outlining three clear offers to national governments: Partnering in implementation, unlocking finance, and making COP a process of implementation and accountability. The Statement was then carried to Belém and presented to UN Secretary-General António Guterres during the World Leaders Forum, held on the eve of COP30’s official opening.
This solid foundation was built throughout the year, with the LGMA Constituency tracing the road from COP29 in Baku to COP30 in Belém. Local and regional governments arrived equipped with the LGMA COP30 Joint Position, endorsed by over 50 networks representing tens of thousands of local and regional governments.
While the COP30 Local Leaders Forum Outcome presents what mayors, governors and other subnational leaders can offer to and expect from COP30, the LGMA COP30 Joint Position sets out how these contributions can be anchored in COP30’s negotiated outcomes. This collective voice opened COP30 with a joint press conference, reminding Parties that the era of implementation must be rooted in multilevel governance.
The LGMA five clear messages contained in the COP30 Joint Position serve as the negotiating foundation for the Constituency. Those asks drove the inputs at various thematic negotiation intervention opportunities, such as just transition and climate finance. The Constituency is also focusing on landing a “legacy of multilevel governance and urbanization” into the negotiated outcomes by working with Parties to find appropriate pathways.
The COP30 Presidency released the Summary Note on Presidency Consultations late Sunday evening, with the goal of summarizing what the Presidency had heard from Parties through the first week. Three points showed promise for local and regional governments seeing favorable outcomes in the final decisions. These include:
- “Engaging non-state actors to deliver on national climate goals”
- “Important role of multilateral, international, regional and local support organizations in supporting the implementation of climate action”
- “COP30 Presidency, to re-invigorate Mission 1.5; working inclusively with Parties, sub-national actors, civil society, and the private sector, to develop a 1.5C response plan to address the pre 2030 action and ambition gaps including in relation to implementation of GST1”
Cities and regions take center stage
The week was marked with several engagements at high-level political moments. During the COP30 Opening Plenary, the LGMA’s statement – delivered by Rafael Fonteles, Governor of Piauí and President of Consórcio Nordeste – reinforced the constituency’s commitment to delivering solutions on the ground, calling for a “strong legacy for multilevel and urban collaboration.”
The momentum for cities and regions was evident, when the COP30 Presidency invited local and regional representatives to the daily press conference on 11 November as special guides.
Katrin Stjernfeldt Jammeh, Mayor of Malmö, Sweden, and ICLEI President, together with Gavin Newsom, California Governor and Under2 Coalition co-founder, highlighted how subnational action is accelerating climate solutions even within complex political contexts. Mayor Jammeh put it clearly: “We know what has to be done, we are ready to deliver, and with support from national leaders, we will do the job.”
Ana Toni, COP30 CEO, remarked at the outset of the press conference: “I believe cities’ actions are the big news of COP30.”
The LGMA is bringing specific messages to each thematic agenda in an effort to embed subnational recognition throughout the COP30 outcomes. As discussions on the future of the Just Transition Work Programme (JTWP) took center stage on 11 November during the COP30 Presidency’s Open Dialogue with Parties and NGO Constituencies, the LGMA called on Parties to formally recognize local and subnational actors as indispensable partners in implementing just transition policies and programs, emphasizing that a Just Transition must be people-centered and locally led.
Dorah Marema, from South African Local Governments Association, gave the LGMA intervention, stating, “The Just Transition is not merely about sectors and economies; it is, first and foremost, about people.” She urged negotiators to move beyond a sectoral and economic lens and focus on the people whose lives are most affected by the green transition.
With Brazil’s COP30 Presidency emphasizing social justice, decent work, and sustainable development, the programme is poised to become one of the defining political outcomes in Belém.
Cities take the spotlight on COP30’s Urban Day at the Ministerial Meeting on Urbanization and Climate Change
For the fourth time since COP27 in Sharm El-Sheikh, cities and regions convened at the Ministerial Meeting on Urbanization and Climate Change. This fourth edition, held on 11 November, brought together ministers, mayors, governors, and partners to accelerate climate action and to secure a dedicated space for subnational voices in the formal COP process.
“We have reached a broad agreement that a credible path to the Paris Agreement’s goals and a climate-resilient future requires multilevel and multisectoral cooperation, with strong synergies between national climate governance and urban development policies,” reads the Summary of the Chair of the Ministerial Meeting, Jader Barbalho Filho, Minister of Cities of Brazil. The Summary was jointly released by the COP30 Presidency, Brazil’s Ministry of Cities, UNFCCC, and UN-Habitat.
The high-level plenary marked the close of COP30’s Urban days and delivered clear outcomes: Commitments to localize NDCs, scale up finance, strengthen multilevel governance, and act on urban heat, housing, and nature.
UN-Habitat also released a new analysis showing that the number of national climate plans (NDC 3.0) with strong urban content has nearly doubled – signalling a global shift in the trend of including cities in national climate agendas.
The CHAMP Coalition enters its implementation phase with Germany and Brazil as the first Co-Chairs
At a high-level ministerial session of the Ministerial Meeting on Urbanization and Climate Change, the Government of Brazil unveiled two milestones to advance multilevel climate governance: The announcement of a new co-chair governance framework for the Coalition for High Ambition Multilevel Partnerships (CHAMP), to be jointly led by Brazil and Germany until 2027. Since launching at COP28 in Dubai, 77 countries and the European Union have endorsed CHAMP.
According to Simon Stiell, Executive Secretary of the UNFCCC: “CHAMP must now become part of how every country prepares and implements its climate plan – aligning national vision with local execution…National governments commit to big infrastructure projects but local leaders want to see shovels in the ground.”
In addition, the Plan to Accelerate the Solution (PAS) of Multilevel, Multisectoral, and Participatory Governance Model for the Implementation of the Paris Agreement marks a new phase in global climate cooperation, serving as the implementation instrument of the CHAMP Coalition.
Brazil’s Minister of Environment and Climate Change, Marina Silva, emphasized: “Multilevel governance is not merely a matter of coordination — it is a space for accountability and shared responsibility among diverse actors across sectors, enabling more effective management.”
PAS is structured around four key levers: Risk-informed decision-making, knowledge and capacity-building, public and private financing, and inclusive, multilevel governance that ensures social participation. It also sets clear implementation targets: By 2028, 100 national climate plans and NDC implementation strategies should formally include multilevel governance mechanisms, increasing to 120 plans by 2030.
Strategies to engage with national governments
On the road to Belém, local and regional governments have already been leading the way with new governance models and tools to contribute to ambitious and inclusive national climate plans. Launched by the LGMA at COP30, the Compendium of National Mobilization Strategies showcases concrete examples of multilevel cooperation already driving implementation worldwide. It complements the LGMA Joint COP30 Position and Guidance Document for Negotiators and serves as both a call to action and a practical roadmap to ensure national commitments reflect local realities and deliver tangible results.
One such strategy is the CHAMP Initiative, launched by the COP28 Presidency in partnership with Bloomberg Philanthropies. In addition, Subnational Transition Plans (STPs) are locally driven climate strategies that set out how states and regions will reduce emissions, build resilience, and transition to clean energy. Launched in 2025 by the Under2 Coalition, STPs are already being taken up widely: 73% of Under2 Coalition governments are developing subnational climate plans aligned with the UNFCCC’s Integrity Matters principles.
ICLEI’s Town Hall COP Initiative has emerged as an innovative model for multilevel governance and urbanization, demonstrating that meaningful change can be driven from the ground up. Since its launch in early 2025, the initiative has quickly gained traction. Fifty one Town Hall COPs have been hosted by local governments and civil society organizations across 25 countries on six continents, gathering over 13,500 participants and even being recognized as an official model for multilevel action in countries such as South Africa, Malaysia, and Kiribati.
But governance and planning tools can only deliver at scale if they are matched with resources. The Finance Your Cities Country Platforms for Localizing Finance (FYC CPLFs) offer a country-owned framework to institutionalize the localization of finance and to connect national climate and development strategies with financeable and bankable, city- and region-ready investment pipelines. Launched by FMDV – Global Fund for Cities Development, FYC CPLFs have been successfully piloted in Cameroon and Madagascar. FYC CPLFs are now framed as a first cohort of country platforms dedicated specifically to localizing finance through national and subnational development banks. The ambition is to scale to six countries by 2028, mobilizing approximately USD 350 million and engaging around 200 local and regional governments.
Looking ahead
As we enter Week 2, the focus shifts to concrete texts and outcomes. The LGMA Constituency is pushing for a strong COP30 legacy, including a mandated dialogue on multilevel governance and urbanization to guide the UNFCCC’s response to the upcoming IPCC Special Report on Cities and the next Global Stocktake.
Cities and regions have already demonstrated that they are the strongest implementers of the Paris Agreement, and they are working to turn this momentum and recognition into outcomes that truly empower local action.
