About the Local Governments and Municipal Authorities Constituency

Since the first climate COP in 1995, the LGMA has served as the official voice for local and subnational governments within UN Climate Change, connecting them directly to global climate processes. The 2015 Paris Agreement marked a turning point, recognizing the essential role of these governments in enhancing NDCs and driving transformative climate action.

The LGMA has since advocated for a process that systematically recognizes, engages, and empowers local and subnational government as central actors to global climate strategies. If successful at COP29 in Baku and COP30 in Belém, this will become the new standard.

Through the Townhall COP initiative, local communities provide input, which local and subnational governments use to assess progress. The CHAMP process then channels this input to national governments, which incorporate it into their updated NDCs (3.0) before submission to UN Climate Change.

Since the Earth Summit in 1992, when nine stakeholder groups—including local authorities—were designated as essential partners in implementing the global sustainability agenda, the LGMA Constituency has represented networks of local and regional governments under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). We have served as the voice of cities and regions since the first Conference of Parties (COP) in 1995 and continue to achieve advocacy success for multilevel action in the climate, nature, and desertification processes.

Since the first climate COP in 1995, the LGMA has been the official channel of cities and regions to the UNFCCC, growing to more than 45 accredited networks of local and regional governments. We coordinate inputs to the global climate negotiations all year, influencing and informing outcomes toward meeting the Paris Agreement via regular communications and monthly webinars with our thematic and regional working groups. On the ground at each COP, our Pavilions serve as the home for the LGMA inside the Blue Zone (the official negotiations space) and are developed in close collaboration with the COP host city, region, and country, as well as other partners.

We push for multi-stakeholder and sectoral representation across a busy advocacy calendar. Since 2015, we have worked closely through the Marrakech Partnership for Global Climate Action, a networking space for subnational collaboration, and with the High-Level Climate Action Champions nominated annually by the COP host country. We help organizations commit and engage through mechanisms such as the Online Climate Action Portal, the Thematic Climate Action Pathways, the Sectoral Breakthroughs, and other initiatives for ambitious action.

The annual Conference of the Parties (COP) is the highest decision-making forum for UNFCCC implementation. Each year, UN Regional Groups appoint a national government as the COP Presidency, nominate the High-Level Climate Action Champion, and set themes for action and negotiation based on their national and regional priorities. The LGMA seeks to engage with and support the COP Presidencies in order to inform and drive progress on special networks and initiatives the Presidencies may designate independent from the UNFCCC.

We shape the decisions made in official negotiations by national governments. We do this through informal dialogue with negotiators—representatives of climate or environment ministries of Parties that have ratified the UNFCCC, the Kyoto Protocol, or the Paris Agreement—to ensure the voice of cities and regions is represented in final outcomes. For example, we initiated the “Friends of Cities” in 2013 and elevated the initiative to the “UNFCCC Friends of Multilevel Action” in 2019.

The LGMA works on on behalf of the Global Taskforce of Local and Regional Governments, a joint global policy advocacy initiative of the major international networks of local governments, in the area of climate.

UNFCCC Accredited Organizations include:

• Assembly of European Regions (AER)
• Association Internationale des Maires Francophones (AIMF)
• Association of Overseas Countries and Territories of the European Union (OCTA)
• Climate Alliance (Klima-Bündnis)
• C40 – Cities Climate Leadership Group
• Council of European Municipalities and Regions
• Energy-Cities
• European Federation of Regional Energy and Environment Agencies/Fédération Européenne des Agences Régionales de L’Energie et de L’Environnement (FEDARENE)
• EUROCITIES
• Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM)

• Italian Local Agenda 21 Association (CA21L)
• ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability (ICLEI)
• National Association of Clean Air Agencies (NACAA)
• Network of European Metropolitan Regions and Areas (METREX)
• Northern Forum (NF)
• Regions4
• R20 – Regions of Climate Action
• UITP
• United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG)
• United States Conference of Mayors (USCM)

Other participating networks include:

• African Capital Cities Sustainability Forum
• Association of German Cities – Deutscher Städtetag
• CDP Cities
• Council of Capital City Lord Mayors
• European Committee of the Regions (CoR)
• European Green Capital Cities Network

• Frente Nacional de Prefeitos (FNP)
• Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate & Energy
• KS Norway – Norwegian Association of Local and Regional Authorities
• SLoCaT Partnership
• South African Local Government Association (SALGA)
• Under2 Coalition

ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability acts as the LGMA Focal Point. ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability is a global network working with more than 2500 local and regional governments committed to sustainable urban development. Active in 125+ countries, we influence sustainability policy and drive local action for zero emission, nature-based, equitable, resilient and circular development.