Local governments and climate change - actions for adaptation and mitigation Involvment in international climate initiatives and negotiations

Irja Alakivi

Association of Estonian Cities

17.05.2010, Tallinn

Seminar on municipal cooperation in the sphere of climate change Project “Bringing Resources and Ideas for the Development of Local Governments of Europe”.

Local governments have to tackle the environmental challenges driven by global change – Science-driven approach needed

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Climate change and quality of life Local governments are responsible for quality of life in cities and towns

TOGETHER WITH OTHER ACTORS

Climate change will have significant impacts on:- on the environment- public health- economy

Climate change will cause:- death during heat waves (2003: 14800 in France, 18000 in Italy, all together 52000 in Europe; Source: Earth Policy Institute (EPI), 2006),

draughts; floods; other extreme weather events; energy shortages and their impact on financing; impacts on planning and provision of services – not yet deeply enough understood

New Focus area: building resilience, building ability to withstand disaster through enhanced planning

* The overall costs climate change will be equivalent to losing at least 5% of GDP each year worldwide (Source: The Stern Review, 2006)

* Costs of action to reduce GHG emissions can be limited to around 1% of Global GDP each year (Source: The Stern Review, 2006)

* Natural and man-made disasters are estimated to cost the EU some 15 billion EUR every year (Source: Environment for Europeans 2010, No 37)

Climate change impacts for the main biogeographic regions of Europehttp://www.eea.europa.eu/data-and-maps/figures/key-past-and-projected-impacts-and-effects-on-sectors-for-the-main-biogeographic-regions-of-europe

Climate change impacts – exposure to flood risk under the climate change scenario A2http://www.eea.europa.eu/data-and-maps/figures/climate-change-impacts-2014-exposure-to-flood-risk-under-the-climate-change-scenario-a2 .

This is no-action scenario and coastal floods are not included

Local and regional authorities…

Are aware of the challenges ahead Are already initiating strategies to reduce their footprint on

climate Are catalysts for fostering change in behaviour, encouraging

individuals and private sector to actively contribute Are cooperating actively at national,regional, european, and

global level But there are still uncertainties as regards the scale, timing and

consequencies of the climate change. The EU and national governments should support and stimulate research activities, ensuring that the results can and will be applied at the relevant level.

Examples of some concrete adaptation measures

1. Adaptation of general flood area definition and land use regulations.

2. Construction of small dams to protect built up areas

3. Prioritization of flood prone areas Integration of financially reasonable climate change mitigation

and adaptation measures into spatial planning practices is already in process.

Awareness raising on natural hazard and climate change impacts. The cooperation of (geo) scientists with regional planning

supports sustainable decision making. The communication process, especially concerning

uncertainties, is most important.

Climate change related actions and cooperation of local governments and examples of their contributions at various levels

Through local strategies and actions according to local development plans Through European wide sustainability and climate commitments of local

governments: Aalborg Charter: signed by 2708 LG (Estonia 7: Tallinn, Tartu, Narva, Pärnu, Kuressaare,

Haapsalu, Häädemeeste) http://www.aalborgplus10.dk/

Aalborg Commitments: (objective 10 specifies climate) signed by 621 LG (Estonia 5: Tallinn,

Tartu, Narva, Häädemeeste, Märjamaa) + 54 declarations of intentions, 48 baseline reviews available on-line. http://www.aalborgplus10.dk/

Covenant of Mayors: signed by 1692 LG (Estonia: Tallinn, Rakvere, Kuressaare), Finland 4, Latvia 5, Lithuania 7 http://www.eumayors.eu/covenant_cities/towns_cities_en.htm Over 1500 European mayors gathered at the European Parliament in Brussels on 4 May at the occasion of the 2nd Covenant of Mayors Ceremony, which saw 500 mayors sign the Covenant declaration committing to reducing their CO2 emissions by 20% by 2020.)

Through their representative associations (AEC, Kuntaliitto, ALAL etc) and umbrella organisations of the associations (CEMR, UCLG) or LG main direct member organisations like ICLEI -Local Governments for Sustainability

Through national-local cooperation and through very new partnership in international cooperation as first time in history of international climate negotiations representatives of local authorities and their associations were by some countries nominated as members of their national delegations at COP 15 (Finland, Estonia, Norway etc)

Cooperation body- Council of European Municipalities and Regions (CEMR)

CEMR members are national associations of local authorities

Environment working group and energy network of CEMR tackle climate issues first, after that CEMR policy committee

CEMR position papers related to climate and EU 2020 Strategy:

2007: CEMR’s response to the GREEN PAPER on Adapting to climate change in Europe – options for EU action COM (2007) 354, http://www.ccre.org/docs/climate_change_cemr_response.pdf

2008: CEMR position paper on the directive on the promotion of the use of energy from renewable sources COM (2008) 30 final. Brussels, June 2008 http://www.ccre.org/docs/cemr_position_paper_renewables.pdf

2009: CEMR position paper on the recast of the directive on the energy performance of buildings COM (2008) 780. Brussels, February 2009 http://www.ccre.org/docs/cemr_position_paper_epbd_february_2009_en.pdf

2010: CEMR Response to the European Commission’s Consultation on the future “EU 2020” Strategy COM(2009) 647/2. Brussels, January 2010 http://www.ccre.org/docs/cemr_response_eu_2020_strategy_en.pdf

FROM COP 15 to COP 16Local and Regional Governments Call to the Parties in CopenhagenAdopted at the Local Government Climate Change Leadership Summit

4 June 2009 in Copenhagen 1(3)

Shared vision – post-Kyoto agreements should be: • Far-reaching and transparent… • Inclusive… • Linked to the development strategies… • Mindful of the principles of justice, equity and solidarity… • Global, through agreed action from all countries to combat

climate change, mobilizing the capacities of all stakeholders for implementation. /…/ * Cities and local authorities should be empowered with the

capacities and the resources required to take necessary action at the local

level and to support the Parties in their efforts to meet the agreed

targets.

FROM COP 15 to COP 16 Local and Regional Governments Call to the Parties in CopenhagenAdopted at the Local Government Climate Change Leadership Summit

4 June 2009 in Copenhagen 2(3)

* The principle of subsidiarity should be applied when dealing with the impacts of climate change

* Devolution of responsibilities should be matched with devolution of financial and human capacity

/…/Regarding Finance and Technology* Financial mechanism should be directly accessible by

cities and local and regional governments/…/* Development of innovative approaches should be

facilitated to allow affordable access to the best available technologies

FROM COP 15 to COP 16 Local and Regional Governments Call to the Parties in CopenhagenAdopted at the Local Government Climate Change Leadership Summit

4 June 2009 in Copenhagen 3(3)

/…/Regarding the Flexibility Mechanisms

* City-to-city cooperation and decentralized capacity development initiatives should be included as part of technology transfers and flexibility mechanisms

/…/* Existing mechanisms should be efficient, effective and

well coordinated as well as accessible of actors at different levels and management should be devolved to the lowest level of effective governance

The UN negotiations at COP 15 and getting ready to COP 16

The UN negotiations are established in two-track mode: the Ad-hoc Working Group regardingthe further commitments to Kyoto Protocol (AWG-KP) and the Ad-hoc Working Group regardingLong Term Cooperative Action (AWG-LCA) dealing with many more issues than mitigationactions by developed nations.

The negotiating text of the AWG-LCA of more than 200 pages (June 2009) included around 100local government references. At the end of the first week at COP 15 things were unclear. The KPand LCA tracks continued to negotiate , with the hope that a series of COP decisions would beadopted based on the texts negotiated.

However, some other texts for agreement were then leaked and confusion reignedthen inside and outside COP 15 venue. Discussions on the Copenhagen Outcome took place atthe highest possible level 3 days until Parties took note of the Copenhagen Accord, a textWithout legally binding character and the list of parties agreeing to the Accord: http://unfccc.int/home/items/5262.

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Thirty second session of the UNFCCC Convention subsidiary bodies: 31 May to 9 June 2010 Twelfth session of the AWG-KP and tenth session of the AWG-LCA: 1 June to 11 June 2010 COP 16: December 2010

Local Government representatives getting floor at plenaries of COP 15

On 7 December 2009, Ronan Dantec, Vice-President of the Nantes-Metropole, France, Vice-President of ICLEI - Local Governments for Sustainability, spoke on behalf of the Local Government and Municipal Authorities at the opening of the Ad Hoc Working Group on Long-Term Cooperative Action (AWG-LCA) at COP 15 representing the Local Government Climate Roadmap, and stated that "No country will ever meet its own targets, which we hope to be ambitious, without the commitment of the local level."

On Friday, the 18th of December 2009, Ronan Dantec spoke on behalf of the Local Governments and Municipal Authorities, making a statement in the High Level 2 Segment at COP 15.

LG-s at COP 15 and COP 15 outcome for Local Governments

Local governments had their own advocacy base at the COP 15 conference venue — the Local Government Climate LOUNGE, a meeting space situated next to national governments’ delegation offices.

Facilitated by ICLEI - Local Governments for Sustainability, the LOUNGE provided an

advocacy space for about 1,500 registered local government representatives, including more than 200 mayors, during the two weeks of COP 15.

Aside from the Copenhagen Accord, a series of draft COP decisions were put forward by the AWG-LCA. These draft decisions are expected to serve as the basis for the negotiations towards COP 16 in 2010. In these draft COP decisions local governments were officially referred to under the so called “Shared Vision” as well as addressed in Adaptation and Capacity Building agendas. Since the definition of NAMAs (Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Actions) was completely deleted from the final draft text, reference to mitigation in cities in developing countries within the scope of NAMAs were deleted.

Due to delegation member (Party) status it has been actually possible representatives of associations of local governments as members of national delegations to participate at plenary meetings and at other open meetings freely and experience the full complexity of the issues under negotiations. Participation of observer organisations at plenary meetings was very limited.

THANK YOU FOR COOPERATION

Our warm thanks to

Estonian Ministry of Environment and Ministry of Foreign Affairs for good cooperation before COP 15, at COP 15 and afterwards

Thank you to our good colleagues and cooperation partners from Nordic andBaltic countries, Nordic Council of Ministers Office in Estonia and SEI-Tallinn

Special thanks to the Association of Finnish Local and Regional Authorities for close cooperation since 1994, and very new initiative: contest “PRACTICAL SOLUTIONS TOCOMBAT CLIMATE CHANGE - A competition for organisations in the Baltic Sea regionand Nordic countries” Involvement and recent activities of AEC to promote the contest: Information on that contest was in the agenda of the 11.05.2010 Board meeting of theAssociation of Estonian Cities and after that a press release was sent out to all maininformation channels in Estonia. In June a short information will be published in journal “Keskkonnatehnika”