CEMR blog: The world’s towns and regions cooperate to heal the climate

Two single statistics are enough to see why Europe’s towns and regions, development issues and climate change are closely intertwined. First, by 2050 two humans in three will be living in towns or cities. Second, in the future most of the causes of climate change will come from the developing world.

In other words climate change occurs mainly in cities – in the future this will be mostly in cities in the southern hemisphere. Therefore solutions will be devised and implemented at local level and through cooperation.

Last September, the UN summit on the post-2015 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) was a milestone: for the first time ever the UN and the international community at large irrevocably recognised the key role of our towns and regions in development. The only real question is: why did it take so long to acknowledge this?

Indeed, the journey to achieving the post-2015 development goals began many years ago, in various locations across the world. It started in the Swedish town of Helsingborg and its Indonesian counterpart of Probolinggo; it sprouted in the French Rhônes-Alpes and the Ho Chi Minh province in Vietnam; it was conceived in Leicester (UK) and Gujarat (India), in Florence (Italy) and Thiès (Senegal)…Hundreds, thousands of examples of towns and regions from every continent working together, in partnership, away from the limelight, for a better, fairer world. Partnerships that often focus on climate-related issues, such as better management of electricity, access to renewable energies or greener public transport have been blossoming between Europe and Africa, Latin America, Asia and the Far East long before the UN Sustainable Development summit. Each of them helping us reach those goals even before they were adopted.

Decentralised cooperation: Gentler, Faster, Better
Once upon a time, in 2004, Edegem (Belgium) and San Jerónimo (Peru) embarked on a cooperation centred around the huge San Jerónimo market (some 2,000 producers). The size of the market had an obvious economic and environmental impact as well as putting a strain on local public services (road congestion, health and hazard issues, waste collection etc.). Local civil servants and experts from both towns worked together to bring effective and sustainable solutions: today over two tons of organic waste are collected daily and processed in the new compost plan and San Jerónimo has received the “eco-efficient municipality” award. Furthermore, all the initiatives included local stakeholders, and better access to markets and cleaner streets have led to an increase of buyers, which contributes to local economic growth. In short, most of the post-2015 SDGs are already being implemented there at a minimal cost (€60,000 a year).

Now, imagine hundreds of thousands of towns from all over the world working along those lines; this is how we can tackle climate change. More concretely, our towns and regions need to boost exchanges of information, experience and expertise in order to highlight the gems to be shared with all. Enter PLATFORMA, the network of European local and regional governments and their associations active in development cooperation. Through its 34 partners, its raison d’être is indeed to be the link between all those active in, or eager to embark on, decentralised cooperation. Through events and publications, exchange of experience and advocacy, PLATFORMA acts as the cement holding cooperation at the local and regional level together.

We, as the leading voice on towns and regions, also know that local projects fail unless you broaden the range of partners. That’s the reason why in all our work we endeavour to include representatives from the private sector, NGOs and civil society more generally as local governments need their expertise and knowhow.

Finally, experience has shown that cooperation at the local and regional level is the more effective way to achieve ends as there are no intermediaries. Objective setting can thus be realistic and measurable and those partnerships’ purely local nature leads to greater efficiency. Yet, improving access to water or education, improving local administration or erecting solar panels on public buildings is not cost-free. Maybe in some cases public-private partnerships can help, but it seems clear that most projects will need extra resources. That’s why we are calling for the preparation and future adoption of a code of conduct between local governments and national states on responsibility and finances. The idea is to empower local and regional governments, give them the ability to address their own needs and implement local policies to tackle the challenge of climate change.

An opportunity to act
At the COP21 summit, world leaders and representatives of international organisations must recognise the key role of towns and regions in tackling climate change. In this context, PLATFORMA plays a dual role. On the one hand to strive for the achievement of SDGs by placing an effective decentralised cooperation at the service of our planet. On the other hand, via its members, to let national governments and international bodies know that we will remind them of their promises if needed. In Paris at the COP 21 conference, in Quito at the UN HABITAT III conference, everywhere, every day.

by Frédéric Vallier
CEMR* Secretary General
*CEMR is the lead partner of PLATFORMA – the European voice of Local and Regional Governments in Development Cooperation

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