The Voice of Cities and Regions in the UNFCCC Climate Process

Every month, you’ll receive updates about how cities and regions are engaging in the global climate agenda and other global sustainability processes, prepared for you by the Global Advocacy team at ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability.

Through our webinars and bulletin, ICLEI’s Director of Global Advocacy Yunus Arikan, will be highlighting developments and key topics from the global climate arena to orient local and regional governments on the important issues of multilevel governance and progress in the global climate negotiations through the year, and in the leadup to COP30.

We welcome the Brazilian Presidency’s call for a mutirão, a society-wide mobilization to achieve climate goals. From the Paris Agreement to the Glasgow Climate Pact and the COP28 UAE Consensus, the international climate regime has progressively recognized the essential role of local and other subnational governments. Now, COP30 must deliver on this recognition by institutionalizing engagement and empowering local authorities to lead implementation.

Through our vision for COP30 and beyond, we are pushing for a new phase of climate governance, one where multilevel action is no longer voluntary or symbolic, but an operational core of the UNFCCC process. The position urges to work towards a formal UNFCCC work program on multilevel and urbanization, better alignment of adaptation indicators with local needs, recognition of subnational roles in just transitions, localized access to climate finance, and connect multilevel climate governance to the UN80 reforms.

The 62nd session of the Subsidiary Bodies (SB62) of the UNFCCC came at a pivotal moment in the global climate process. With key negotiations from COP29 in Baku still unresolved and the incoming Brazilian COP30 Presidency calling for an era of inclusive implementation, SB62 marked a critical checkpoint on the road to Belém.

For the LGMA Constituency, the SB62 was more than a procedural stop. It was a proving ground for multilevel action – and a platform to show how collaboration between national and subnational governments is already driving results.

Launched at COP28, CHAMP focuses on enhancing multilevel governance to ensure that climate commitments are not only made at the national level but also effectively implemented through coordinated efforts at all levels.

It aims to drive more ambitious climate action by fostering collaboration between different levels of government, including national, regional, and local authorities, as well as non-state actors such as businesses and civil society.

By hosting annual mini-COPs, local and subnational governments, along with their citizens, can engage in climate action by turning their city halls and other local venues into COP-like platforms.

Piloted in 2023 as “local stocktakes,” Town Hall COPs have since become a way for local and subnational governments to assess their climate progress, share insights, and collaborate with national governments. Importantly, they help integrate local voices into global climate policies, particularly countries’ Paris Agreement plans, known as Nationally Determined Contributions.

We need effective multi-level governance to transform cities. To achieve this vision, the COP27 Presidency has launched the SURGe Initiative with the objective to enhance and accelerate local and urban climate action through multi-level governance, engagement, and delivery through five integrated tracks, contributing to achieving the Paris Climate Goals and Sustainable Development Goals.

SURGe is developed in collaboration with UN-Habitat, facilitated by ICLEI, and endorsed by 70+ global partners.

Upon the conclusion of COP29, the LGMA Constituency welcomes the first major climate finance deal in fifteen years. However, the deal is inadequate to ensure that communities around the world can protect themselves and represents the absolute floor of finance that is needed. With a disappointing lack of ambition in the overall COP29 outcomes, the LGMA Constituency stressed the increasing importance of multilevel action to ensure the climate fight continues at speed and scale.

Check out or interviews, daily recap videos, photos and interventions delivered at COP29 on behalf of the LGMA.