Delivered by Wade Crowfoot, California Secretary for Natural Resources
Honourable President, distinguished delegates,
My name is Wade Crowfoot, California Secretary for Natural Resources. I’m honoured to address COP29 as a proud representative of subnational governments on the front lines of climate change.
Today, I’m speaking to you on behalf of the Local Government and Municipal Authority (LGMA) and Under2Coalition – the largest network of subnational governments in the world.
We are towns, cities, counties, territories, provinces, states, regions, and devolved governments, each who are taking bold action to meet global climate goals and to protect our people from the dangerous impacts of intensifying climate change.
As we gather here, this much is clear: Global emissions are not yet in line with the Paris Agreement temperature goal. People around the world are suffering and dying from climate-driven disasters. And our natural systems are declining at rates unseen in human history. More must be done, and more quickly than ever.
Our governments play an important role in making measurable, durable progress confronting climate change, and today close to 100 local and regional governments and their global networks are calling on Parties with a common voice to convey three points:
- This COP can and must catalyse Parties to strengthen updated National Determined Contributions (NDCs). Parties must ratchet-up ambition and work across multiple levels of government and society in ways that are inclusive, cooperative, gender-responsive to set and meet these new NDCs.
- We are your partners to set and achieve strong NDCs. COP28 recognised the critical role of multilevel action and launched the Coalition for High Ambition Multilevel Partnerships (CHAMP). But much more is needed to integrate subnational governments into this global effort, including financing sustainable climate action at all levels.
- Climate action moving forward must become more comprehensive, to encompass pollution reduction, nature protection and restoration, and sustainable development priorities.
As governments on the front lines of climate change across seven continents, we are dependable—and indispensable—partners to achieve all we need to at this COP and beyond.
For California and so many other American states for example, our climate commitments remain—and will remain—strong and translate into measurable climate progress in years to come.
For the lives and livelihoods of our people and the future of our planet, we must act with unprecedented resolve and urgency. There is absolutely no time to waste.
Thank You.
