United Cities and Local Governments, UCLG is participating in the climate negotiations, the 17th Conference of the parties taking place From 27 November to 9 December in Durban, South Africa. The UCLG negotiation group, chaired by the city of Nantes for 3 years, is following the negotiations with the aim of obtaining the recognition of the role of the cities in climate change.
Thanks to a continuous presence and regular contacts with national delegations, UCLG negotiation group had obtained, last year in Cancun, the inscription of the revision of methodologies in the work plan of the Executive Bureau of Clean Development Mechanisms (CDM). This revision is aiming at facilitating access to the so-called "city-wide" projects. This concept is referring to the grouping of different actions at city-level in just one project, which allows for economies of scale, costs reduction in CDM projects set-up and increase of eligible cities.
Speaking in the opening plenary of the Summit of Cities organized by the city of Durban and ICLEI on December 2, Ronan Dantec, Deputy Mayor of Nantes, on behalf of UCLG, underlined the importance of this success: "This decision is pushing forward the territorial approach of the cities in developing countries, with coherent actions in transport policies, water and waste management and urban planning. A consistent territorial approach is the condition of efficient actions against climate change. As such, cities will tomorrow have the possibility to find new incomes for their climate actions through CDM and the Green Fund for Climate."
Yoro Ba, Deputy Mayor of Dakar, member of UCLG negotiation group, during the opening plenary of the COP, thanked the Executive Bureau for Clean Development Mechanisms for the work achieved in 2011 which has led to the formal adoption of the city-wide approach programme, introduced in the annual report of the CDM Bureau.
The challenge is now that cities start implementing such programs, that could benefit of the support of the World Bank, which is also pushing forward the capacity of cities to contribute to the fight against climate change.
Today, Local Governments are ready to have their actions included in the MRV system (Measurable, Verifiable, Reportable) of the UNFCCC. They are demonstrating it through the Carbonn registry, where 51 cities representing 83 millions of inhabitants have reported their actions, reaching a reduction of 447 millions CO2tons.
Contact :
Ronan Dantec, Chair of the UCLG climate negotiation group
+336 15 04 11 23 / [email protected]
Thomas Quéro, International Networks Officer at Nantes Métropole
+336 78 06 88 39 / [email protected]