CITIES AND REGIONSTALANOA DIALOGUES:

LEVERAGINGSUBNATIONALACTION TO
RAISE CLIMATEAMBITION

The case for multilevel action

Table of contents
Introduction3
Defining the Cities and Regions
Talanoa Dialogues

6

What the Cities and Regions Talanoa
Dialogues have achieved

8

Example input to the Talanoa Dialogue

11

Lessons learned from Talanoa in 2018

15

Recommendations19

Organizing a Cities andRegions Talanoa Dialogue

22

CITATION

AUTHORSThis publication should be cited as ICLEI - Local
Governments for Sustainability, 2018.
Cities and Regions Talanoa Dialogues: Leveraging
subnational action to raise climate ambition. Bonn,
Germany.

Robert Meyer, Jisun Hwang, Yunus Arikan
ICLEI World Secretariat

CONTRIBUTORSPUBLISHER

Maryke van Staden and Gino Van Begin
ICLEI World Secretariat

Bonn Center for Local Climate Action and Reporting

LAYOUTICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability e.V.
Kaiser-Friedrich-Strasse 753113 Bonn, Germany
www.iclei.org

Matteo Franceschi(c) 2018 ICLEI - Local Governments for Sustainability
e.V. All rights reserved.

For nations to reach their climate goals and deliver on
the Paris Agreement, timing makes the difference.
The IPCC Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5°C, released in October 2018, makes it
clear that it is not only important to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the long run,but that this reduction must occur as quickly as possible. A summary of this report from the
IPCC states: “Future climate-related risks depend on the rate, peak and duration of warming.”
The summary also states that climate-related risks are “larger if global warming exceeds
1.5°C before returning to that level by 2100 than if global warming gradually stabilizes at
1.5°C, especially if the peak temperature is high.”
In other words, climate action is time-sensitive. Even if carbon emissions are reduced to preindustrial levels, the longer that reduction takes, the greater the climate risks will be.

If nations are to address time-sensitive climate risks
and make their Nationally Determined Contributions(NDCs) fit for the Paris Agreement in 2020, they willneed to support both sustainable urban development
and the wide array of climate actions and commitments
undertaken by local and regional governments.

Cities account for 70 percent of all energy-related greenhouse gas emissions worldwide,
making them the natural focal point for policies designed to reduce national emissions
contributions. Despite this, the UN-Habitat reports that as of 2016, 40 percent of current
NDCs do not reference the urban dimension, and that the ambition of existing NDCs do notmatch national potential.
This represents an important policy gap for several reasons. First, many local and regional
governments are already engaged in ambitious climate action efforts, and developing plans
and actions on urban and territorial development which have an impact on many sectors,
including transport, energy, buildings, waste and health. If those efforts are not consideredin national policy, it is likely that national will develop parallel, disconnected reporting andadaptation plans. Second, not considering the local and regional commitments means thatnations cannot accurately assess the ambition of their current and future new NDCs. Lastly,
this disconnect means that national support may not be reaching to the communities where
it would have the most impact.

3

According
to the 2018
aggregation
report from the
Global Covenantof Mayors
for Climate &Energy (GCoM),
commitmentsfrom local
and regional
governments
have thepotential toreduce CO2

equivalentemissions by
17 gigatons by2030.

According to the report, Data speak louder thanwords, from ICLEI, C40, SDI, UN-Habitat and 100
Resilient Cities, 70 percent of all funding

for local climate adaptation comes fromlocal sources. This suggests that there are still

significant opportunities for national governments
to support local governments in pursuing theirclimate ambitions. Given the already substantial
impact of local commitments, this should be
noted by policymakers looking to meet and expand
climate ambitions on the national level.

The Cities and Regions
Talanoa Dialogues bridge
the gap between all levelsof government.
The Cities and Regions Talanoa Dialogues initiative
is a series of in-country climate consultations thatconnect national and subnational leaders. The goal ofthese consultations is to strengthen the urban-climate
nexus by creating multilevel governance policies thatleverage the strengths and assets available atevery level of government.
In practice, the Cities and Region Talanoa Dialogues
provide an opportunity for climate stakeholders
within a nation to measure, shape and strengthen
NDCs. This initiative is an immediate response fromthe urban world to the global Talanoa Dialogues,
launched at COP23 by the Government of Fiji, andthe Bonn-Fiji Commitment adopted at the Climate
Summit of Local and Regional Leaders.
Facilitated by ICLEI with GCoM and UN-Habitat as
special partners, this initiative, launched at the 9th
World Urban Forum in February 2018, also builds
upon Call for Vertical Integration of Local Authorities
in national climate investment plans issued by the
GCoM at the One Planet Summit last December.

4

Leaders at the closing plenary of the COP23 leaders summit

In short, the Cities and Regions Talanoa Dialogues open channels for sharing resources,
knowledge and responsibility across governments at all levels.
By creating this valuable connection, the dialogues are a powerful tool for nations looking toachieve—and raise—their climate action ambitions as quickly as possible.

“When we learn about what is actually being delivered at
the local level, we may find that our NDCs can be enhanced
relatively easily. Because so much is already happening therethat has not yet been accounted for.”
H.E. Frank Bainimarama, COP23
President and Prime Minister of Fiji

5

Defining the Cities and Regions
Talanoa Dialogues
The word “Talanoa” itself refers to a style of dialogue practiced in Fiji and the Pacific, which
fosters openness and inclusion. Although the hosts, formats and objectives of different
Talanoa Dialogues may vary, this spirit is a fundamental part of the process. The Cities andRegions Talanoa Dialogues are organized around three essential questions:

1. WHERE ARE WE?
Participants review national and subnational commitments and actions. The core of this
dialogue is to review the current NDC and provide an up-to-date overview of how muchprogress has been achieved by all levels of government. Participants then examine whether
sustainable urban development is adequately reflected in national climate policy, andconsider recent highlights and obstacles in their climate adaptation efforts. Climate action,
targets and commitments by local and regional governments are provided by relevant global
platforms such as the carbonn Climate Registry.

2. WHERE DO WE WANT TO GO?
Participants identify their possible link to climate action, the Sustainable Development
Goals (SDGs) and national urban development policy. They considered how to strengthen
NDCs by integrating commitments and actions by subnational governments, as well as how
inter-sectoral collaboration and coordination could support the implementation of NDCs.
Participants are encouraged to involve stakeholders from beyond the traditional authorities,
including: development banks, youth organizations, universities, private investors, development
agencies and corporations, international organizations and network associations.

3. HOW DO WE GET THERE?
Participants explore how national and subnational governments and climate stakeholders
can work together to mobilize technical and financial resources, and develop enabling
policies to deliver on and strengthen the NDCs. They propose potential models forcollaboration across different levels and functions of government, for example through new
institutional mechanisms or structures. ICLEI collects answers developed at each dialogue,
and, in our role as focal point of the Local Governments and Municipal Authorities (LGMA)
Constituency, we use these outcomes to advance our advocacy efforts. Further, ICLEI
synthesizes these submissions into an input into the global Talanoa Dialogues organized byUnited Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). This way, the Cities
and Regions Talanoa Dialogues feed into international negotiations.

6Participants at a Cities and Regions Talanoa Dialogue event in Norway

How the Talanoa Dialogue fits into
the Paris Agreement
At COP21, a decision was made to convene a Facilitative Dialogue among Parties (national
governments) in 2018 to take stock of the collective efforts of Parties on the goals of theParis Agreement, and to inform the preparation of NDCs. Building on this mandate, it was
decided to have this dialogue be known as the Talanoa Dialogue, to begin in January 2018
and culminate at COP24.
Although originally designed as a one-time event, many partners—including those from theBonn-Fiji Commitment—advocated for a more inclusive approach. With this, the Talanoa
Dialogue expanded into a year-round process that gives any local and regional government
the opportunity to provide input into the process.
These year-round inputs have been carried forward to the negotiations at COP24, where
the Paris Agreement Work Programme—which defines implementation rules for theParis Agreement on market and non-market mechanisms, mitigation, adaptation, loss
and damage, finance, technology, capacity building, global stocktake, transparency andcompliance—will be informed by the Cities and Regions Talanoa Dialogues and the inputsof all participating partners.

7

As of November
2018, local
and regional
governments,
networks andpartners haveparticipated in
60 events
in 40 countries.

UN-Habitat
reports that as ofNovember 2017,indicate only 68
percent of NDCs
have some visionof urban context.

What the Cities andRegions Talanoa
Dialogues have achieved
MAINSTREAMING
MULTILEVEL GOVERNANCE
The preamble of the Paris Agreement introduces
the concept of multilevel climate action byrecognizing the importance of engaging all levelsof government. The Cities and Regions Talanoa
Dialogues have developed this engagement byenabling year-round discussion of the NDCs in cities
and regions around the world. This has allowed fora more thorough and responsive assessment ofclimate ambitions and realities beyond asingle event like COP24.

“As long as we continue these
dialogues, I believe we have hopefor addressing this urgent global
challenge of climate change.”
Oswar M. Mungkasa, Deputy Governor,
Jakarta, Indonesia
The Cities and Regions Talanoa Dialogues haveplayed an important role in demonstrating thevalue of inclusive policy making, as was intended
by the global Talanoa. By opening the lines

of communication between groups thathave traditionally worked in parallel,
subnational and national governments
have discovered untapped resources forachieving their climate ambitions.

8

Additionally, the Cities and Regions Talanoa
Dialogues have captured inputs from an extremely
broad group of stakeholders. Through thismechanism, groups who are not traditionally in the
climate action ‘spotlight’ have been able to contributeto the international climate negotiations. This not
only represents a just inclusion of peoples aroundthe globe, but highlights untapped opportunities forclimate action while contributing to the advancementof multilevel governance in the manner set out
by the Paris Agreement.

Cities and Regions Talanoa Dialogue at Resilient Cities 2018 in Bonn, Germany

CONTRIBUTING TO THE GLOBAL NEGOTIATIONSAs the focal point of the LGMA Constituency, ICLEI aggregates the outcomes of the Cities
and Regions Talanoa Dialogues into submissions to the Talanoa Dialogues organized by the
UNFCCC. These submissions are a means for climate negotiators to assess the experiences,
resources and commitments of climate stakeholders across the globe.
Through this process, the Cities and Regions Talanoa Dialogues provide a channel ofcommunication that directly links the experiences of local and regional governments
to the international climate negotiation process, making the negotiation process
much more inclusive.

To date, more than 50 submissions from the LGMA have been submitted
to the global Talanoa process. These submissions collect and convey
the collective voices of hundreds of cities and regions across the globe.

9Participants at the Lomé Talanoa Dialogue in Togo

Understanding Non-Party Stakeholders andthe LGMA Constituency
Agenda 21, adopted at the Earth Summit in Rio in 1992, introduced nine Major Groups ofsociety as essential partners of the implementation of global agreements. Local authorities
are recognized as one of these nine groups and in the UNFCCC context, they are gathered
under the LGMA Constituency. The LGMA Constituency is one of the three groups thathave been engaging in the UNFCCC process since COP1 in 1995. As of 2017, more than 20
organizations are involved in the LGMA Constituency and ICLEI has acted as the LGMA focal
point since its inception.
Through the LGMA Constituency, local and regional governments contribute in the UNFCCC
negotiations by sharing their views on various negotiation topics. They provide written
or oral interventions, nominate representatives to technical workshops, participate at the
UNFCCC negotiation meetings as observers, engage in the consultations of the Presidencies
and convene specific events at the official meetings. This has played an instrumentalrole in the adoption of specific COP decisions related to local and regional governments
in 2010 and 2013, followed by historic recognition of the importance of engagement of
all levels of governments enshrined in the Paris Agreement and recognition of cities andother subnational governments as a dedicated group within Non-Party Stakeholders of the
UNFCCC process.

10

CONTRIBUTING TO THE GLOBAL NEGOTIATIONS:EXAMPLE OF AN INPUT TO THE TALANOA DIALOGUE
What follows is an excerpt of a submission from ICLEI to the global Talanoa process. Thisparticular submission carries forward lessons and key points as determined by local andregional leaders at the Cities and Regions Talanoa Dialogues. This is not a full sample, nor isit the only submission by ICLEI and partners to the global Talanoa Dialogue, but it provides
insight into one of the outcomes of the Talanoa process.

Opportunities to further scale up action and means to address barriers that canenable even further action by non-Party stakeholders based on the actions you
have taken to implement your commitments.

Policy levers
NEW MECHANISMS FOR SUBNATIONAL INPUTThe Philippine Climate Change Commission (CCC) is working towards developing
a quality assurance checklist to outline necessary elements that need to bepart of a Local Climate Change Action Plan. Currently, there is no mechanism
in place for local governments to submit their climate action plans to thenational government. In Indonesia there was the suggestion to disaggregate
national emission reduction targets according to sectors, so that sector-specificstrategies can be developed both at the national and subnational levels. In
Europe, the Committee of the Regions is advocating for recognition of Locally
Determined Contributions within NDCs.

CITIES AND REGIONS LEADING CARBON NEUTRALITY BY 2050
In Torres Vedras, Portugal cities and regions were informed about the expectation
to take the lead in the efforts towards mid-century carbon neutrality. This is why thePortuguese national government is currently working on actions to enable cities tobe the trigger of local collaborative processes. Numerous announcements via the
Global Climate Action Summit supported these efforts as well.

SHARING COMMON GOALS AND OBJECTIVES
Sessions such as in Seoul and Johannesburg highlighted that climate actionplans and relevant implementation measures should be institutionalised bynational law and practices.

11Lessons learned based on the experienceand progress so far
Local/regional governments or their networks and partners engaged throughthe Local Governments and Municipal Authorities (LGMA) Constituency to the
UNFCCC convened 53 sessions in 37 countries.
60% of national dialogues took place in the Global South, African nations hosted
highest (8) sessions and Urban October witnessed the highest number (11) ofsessions. More than 75% of all sessions engaged other stakeholders as well.
National/federal governments of Austria, India, Japan, Norway, Portugal,
Tanzania, Indonesia engaged as co-partners.
In addition, S. Africa, Finland and Republic of Korea invited cities and regionsat their national Talanoas. Cities and regions were actively engage in regional
Talanoas of EU and Pacific (CAPP) and UNFCCC Regional Climate weeks in
Africa, Asia-Pacific and Latin America.
Collaboration among LGMA Constituency, global partners and UNFCCC
Secretariat and Presidencies proved to be a successful model.
Numerous sessions underlined the desire to continue the Talanoa momentum inthe years ahead.
Outcomes at COP24 in Katowice either through necessary frameworks
embedded in the Paris Agreement Work Programme or through initiatives for thecontinuation of such processes may provide significant contributions to support
second NDCs by 2020 and preparing for global stocktaking.

The 2018 submission highlighted numerous examples ofambitious local climate action, and show how the Cities andRegions Talanoa Dialogues are giving shape to the Paris
Agreement’s call for multilevel governance.

12

MoU signing ceremony in Quito, Equador

BUILDING FRAMEWORKS FOR MULTILEVEL CLIMATE ACTION“International policies and national policies are necessary for
sectors like energy and infrastructure, but at the end of the day
these need to be implemented at the local and regional
levels to provide benefits to people.”
Jochen Flasbarth, State Secretary, Federal Ministry for the Environment,
Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety, Germany“We have to do the utmost possible to bring a sense ofurgency into the negotiation room. This is possible if we follow
the guidance of the Talanoa Dialogue and make our worktransparent, trustful and aimed at building consensus.”
Ingrid-Gabriela Hoven, Director General, Global issues, Federal Ministry for Economic
Cooperation and Development (BMZ), Germany

In many instances, the Cities and Regions Talanoa Dialogues have directly led tomechanisms designed to better position national and subnational governments toachieve—and raise—their climate ambitions. In Quito, Ecuador, for example, a Cities
and Regions Talanoa Dialogue culminated in the signing of a Memorandum ofUnderstanding (MoU) that established the GCoM in Ecuador to serve as thecoordination mechanism for the cities and climate change strategy.

13

Building frameworks in practice: São Paulo, Brazil
Maintaining its leading role in national climate policies, the State of São Paulotook initiative to organize, in partnership with third sector institutions, the first
Talanoa Dialogue in Brazil. The São Paulo Cities and Regions Talanoa Dialogue
on 7 June 2018.
The dialogue brought together public, private, academic and civil society actors
to share experiences and discuss challenges and opportunities facing the state
in developing its strategy to cope with climate change.
This São Paulo initiative on the Cities and Regions Talanoa Dialogue is an
important landmark in efforts to consolidate the role of subnational governments
and the third sector in achieving the goals of the UNFCCC and Paris Agreement.
The São Paulo Cities and Regions Talanoa Dialogue sets the beginning of theprocess at the national level in Brazil. Together with the efforts of the Climate
Change Brazilian Forum, the event aims at the systemic construction and revisionof the Brazilian NDC as well as increasing its ambition to achieve the goals of
the Paris Agreement. The dialogue is important for all actors to understand theefforts needed to achieve these goals.
The São Paulo Cities and Regions Talanoa Dialogue is expected to haverepercussions throughout the country, formenting other dialogues promoted bystates and municipalities, with the active participation of academia, private sector
and civil society.

“India has always participated in all global climate dialogues,
but has acted locally. Hence, we consider cities, and states asimportant part of our commitment. The spirit of these dialogues,
and especially the Talanoa Dialogue, gives us the opportunity to
be inclusive and friendly, and to learn from each other.”Mr. A K Mehta (Additional Secretary), Ministry of Environment,
Forest and Climate Change, Government of India

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Lessons learned from Talanoa in 2018
LOCAL LEADERS ARE TAKING AMBITIOUS CLIMATE ACTION, BUT THEIRWORK IS NOT FULLY INTEGRATED INTO THE NDCS.
The Bonn-Fiji Commitment, which sparked the Cities and Regions Talanoa Dialogues,
highlighted the potential impact of local governments to take meaningful climate action.
According to the GCoM 2018 aggregation report, subnational commitments could result in a
reduction of 17 gigatons of CO2 equivalent (GtCO2e) by 2030.
This achievement, documented at the very beginning of the Talanoa process, has only
been reinforced by the commitments and knowledge that surfaced through the dialogues.
Examples such as these demonstrate growing political will among local governments toadapt to climate change.
Despite the scale of local climate ambitions, they are not always fully incorporated into
the NDC implementation process. In many NDCs, there is no explicit mention of the role
subnational governments play in achieving national climate goals. This is the case eventhough many cities are the ones with the legal responsibility to provide electricity distribution,
waste management and other public services which have direct climate impacts.
The European Committee of the Regions called for NDCs to include an aggregation ofRegionally and Locally Determined Contributions (RLDCs) to formally acknowledge andcount the commitments and achievements of cities and regions in reducing GHG emissions.
Pursuing integrated, sustainable urban and territorial development as part of low emission,resilient development would be further enhanced through the RLDCs, which help identify
concrete opportunities for greater climate ambition.
Similarly, during a Cities and Regions Talanoa Dialogue, the National Government of Togolearned that the City of Tsévié is developing a Sustainable Energy Access and Climate Action
Plan as part of its engagement in the Covenant of Mayors in Sub-Saharan Africa. Shortly
after the dialogue, the Togolese agency for rural electrification and renewable energy made acommitment to work with Tsévié and others cities on their action planning as a joint initiation
with the Ministry of Environment, Energy and Finance.
As these examples illustrate, national governments are increasingly recognizing the potentialof subnational input to climate action, and the Talanoa Dialogues are opening the door for
greater collaboration.

15

ALL LEVELS OF GOVERNMENT ARE SEEING THE VALUE OF ENHANCEDMULTILEVEL COLLABORATION, BUT THE COLLABORATION IS NOT YETSYSTEMATIC.

Throughout the Cities and Regions Talanoa Dialogues, it was consistently noted by bothsubnational and national leaders that all levels of government need to collaborate on
climate activities.

A collaborative approach to planning, implementation, reporting andfinancing is viewed as a helpful alternative to attempting climate action
in parallel.
In some cases, Cities and Regions Talanoa Dialogue participants indicated that theircommitment to collaboration extended well beyond climate. Delegates in Lusaka, Zambia forexample, said they were willing to align their climate action strategies with other national goals.
As remarks such as these accumulated over the course of 2018, many nations began todevelop frameworks and precedents for systematizing their collaboration with subnational
actors. South Africa, Finland and the Republic of Korea invited local and regional
governments to their national Talanoa Dialogues. Japan and Finland, while signing a
Memorandum of Cooperation on environmental preservation, invited the mayor of Yokohama
to share lessons from her experience working with the city’s sustainability programs.
Further, many countries that participate in the Cities and Regions Talanoa Dialogues havedemonstrated good models of multilevel action and broad stakeholder engagement. In
Japan, for example, there exists the Japan Climate Initiative, which as of October 2018
comprised 158 different subnational actors, from major corporations to city governments.
Japanese actors have also found ways to directly include multi-stakeholder components into
various initiatives, and have reaped considerable climate benefits as a result.
Examples like this, which can be seen everywhere from Indonesia to Mexico, highlightthe growing political will to build systematic multilevel action across the globe. And yet,such examples also illustrate how much work there is to be done. The Talanoa process
has revealed many of the communication and policy gaps that exist worldwide. In order toaddress these gaps, inclusive policy creation systems will have to be formalized at every
level of government.

16

While the International
Finance Corporation
estimates that while there
is about $22.3 trillion (IFC
2016) in “climate-smart
investment potential”
worldwide, McKinsey(2018) reports that only
$3 trillion is actually being
invested. The issue behind
this, as published by the
Cities Climate Finance
Leadership Alliance(CCFLA) in 2018, is that
there is a shortage ofinvestment “opportunities.”

MULTILEVEL DIALOGUES ARE
NECESSARY TO CREATE AN ENABLINGFINANCIAL ENVIRONMENT.
A synthesis report on the Cities and Regions Talanoa
Dialogues in Africa found that actors from all sectors
agree that: “in order to maximise access to finance,
all tiers of government, the private sector and civilsociety need to pool their knowledge” of available
financing strategies and technical expertise.
Importantly, this does not suggest that more actors
necessarily need to provide funding opportunities atthis time. This is because there is already a serious
gap between how much money is available—and
how many opportunities there are—for profitablesustainability investments, and how much money ismaking it to local projects.

This shortage of investment opportunities can be traced, in many cases, to issues related
to local capacity. Barriers such as lack of contract preparation experience, lack of technicalknowledge and staff and even simply awareness of funding opportunities all represent major
barriers for many cities and regions.
Because these issues are largely matters of capacity, however, national governments cando much to create an enabling environment for climate finance even if they cannot directly
absorb the costs of climate adaptation.

National governments can create an enabling environment for climate
finance, by outlining the mandates and responsibilities of different
tiers of government, establishing enabling legislation and building thecapacity of municipal authorities to use the financing mechanisms thatare already available.
Local and regional governments can also organize themselves in order to better understandthe international climate finance architecture and existing funding opportunities. We havealready seen preliminary suggestions on how they can do this. For example, at the Lome
Cities and Regions Talanoa Dialogue, a key suggestion that emerged was the creation of a
local government focal point that could collaborate with the national government. This focal
point could then circulate and advertise national and international funding opportunities to
Togolese cities.
International organizations have also shown that they have a role to play in developing

17

both the vertical integration between governments and in developing the capacity of
local governments to take advantage of financial opportunities. Programs such as theTransformative Actions Program (TAP), developed by ICLEI and partners, and the Global
Climate City Challenge, developed by GCoM and the European Investment Bank (EIB), show
how external climate action support can simultaneously drive projects while building asystematic framework for local governments to continue their work.

THERE IS A NEED FOR INTEGRATED REPORTING SYSTEMSAND DATA-DRIVEN COLLABORATION.
The Cities and Regions Talanoa Dialogues highlighted that at present, national andsubnational governments often develop parallel, disconnected climate action and reporting
systems. This means that in many cases, subnational climate commitments, actions and risk
assessments are not factored into national planning. This disconnect makes it difficult fornations to plan and set targets that accurately reflect what a nation can achieve.
As nations prepare to submit revised, more ambitious NDCs in 2020, it is critical that bothnational and subnational governments are equipped with robust data. This need has been
demonstrated almost everywhere, but was well highlighted by a Dialogue held in Balikpapan,
Indonesia. There, participants acknowledged that achieving Indonesia’s NDC would require
coordinated effort from all regions, and further acknowledged that existing reporting andclimate adaptation efforts were not unified.
In response to these challenges, the participants of the Balikpapan Dialogue discussed
possible action plans, including the creation of working groups to lead multisectoraldevelopment and various strategies to get emissions information from the private sector.
Participants also agreed that there must be better communication between cities, provinces,and the national government. Expanding the popularity of the national SRN (national registrysystem) for tracking the country’s emissions was offered as a possible approach.
Just as critically, the dialogues show that the information gap extends beyond the localnational connection. While Balikpapan reported with the cCR framework many of its
neighbors, who are also engaged in climate adaptation, did not. National governments needan accurate and up-to-date picture of climate action and climate risks at the subnational
level, and receiving information in many different formats can cause delays and confusion
when it comes to developing national policies.

“We need more dialogues like this so that as cities we canlearn from each other and interact with national government
directly on how we can implement its policies.”
Dr. Maulid Suleiman Madeni, City Council Director of Arusha City, Tanzania

18

Recommendations going forward
The Paris Agreement gives local governments the legitimacy, responsibility and mandate
to take action to tackle climate change. In support of this, the Talanoa process has offeredinsight into the needs and capacities of all levels of government across the world. It hasrevealed gaps in knowledge and capacity, as well as opportunities to build on and enhancethe efforts of subnational governments.
Making use of these insights requires systematic changes at every level of government tomake multilevel governance standard practice. Governments need to continue to work hard
to reap the benefits of an inclusive policy-making process, and institutionalize this process tosecure its advantages for future administrations.
To make most of the Talanoa process, and to strengthen the horizontal and verticalinclusivity of the world’s future climate action, ICLEI recommends the following:

EMPHASIZE NON-PARTY ENGAGEMENT WITH THE UNFCCC.
It is essential that national actors carry inputs from the subnational level to the global climate
negotiations. National leaders need to greatly increase the ambitions of their NDCs to keep
global warming to 1.5 degrees. Doing so will require an accurate understanding resources,
context and opportunities at the local and regional levels. An NDC that well reflects the realsituation of all levels of subnational governments will be much more attainable and targetedthan one that does not, and the Talanoa Dialogues have already demonstrated that the best
path to achieving this is to consult with subnational governments directly.
Such consultation can take a variety of forms, including:•Working with cities and regions on the climate policy creation process•

Consulting cities and regions to identify climate action policies that are already working,and which can be scaled up with a view to strengthening the urban, regional andterritorial dimensions of NDCs.

•

Building capacity of local and regional leaders on the needs and requirements of
UNFCCC engagement, and then collecting their input•

Developing opportunities for national and local level staff to network and collaborate•

Consulting cities to identify challenges around the implementation of NDCs andpreparations for the submission of second NDCs by 202019

GOVERNMENTS AT EVERY LEVEL NEED TO DEVELOP HORIZONTALINTEGRATION FOR SUCCESSFUL CLIMATE ACTION.

In addition to connecting local inputs and engagement to the UNFCCC, both subnational andnational governments have a responsibility to increase their horizontal integration. The Cities
and Regions Talanoa Dialogues have found that not only are there frequent communication
gaps between levels of government, but that departmental boundaries at the same levelgovernment can often present challenges to cohesive climate action. Although it would seem
intuitive that ministers of urban planning, ministers of finance, and ministers of environment
work together, this is often not the case.
National governments can facilitate this kind of local collaboration both through encouraging
it directly and by making it a necessary component of local-national interaction. National
governments can, for example:•

Encourage local governments to hold Talanoa-style dialogues in their jurisdictions.

•

Include a wide cross-section of professionals whenever local governments are consulted,
thereby systematizing their involvement in the local-national climate discussions.

•

Incorporate horizontal collaboration as a necessary element when developing funding
opportunities for projects.

Local governments, meanwhile, have a responsibility to systematize horizontal integration,
both within their own jurisdiction and by taking the lead on collaborative projects withneighboring regions. Even without national input, local coalitions can provide a strong front
for climate negotiation and create a transformative pool of possible resources.

LOCAL AND NATIONAL LEADERS MUST DEVELOP SYSTEMATIC
COMMUNICATION PLANS.
The Cities and Regions Talanoa Dialogues offer a useful template for leaders seeking tocollaborate on future projects, but adoption of this specific format is not critical. Whatmatters more than format is that local and national governments establish regular, organizedmethods of communication that can organize the resources, circumstances, opportunities
and challenges surrounding effective climate action.
Institutionalizing this is important because the process must be able to endure beyond
any single administration. This will allow a state and its constituent regions to reap the
benefits of inclusive policy-making even as political needs shift. A convenient entry-point
for systematizing collaboration is to decide on an integrated data reporting platform thatwill be used by both national and subnational actors. If technical staff from every level ofgovernment are able to access the same information, then collaborative planning becomesmuch simpler.

20

Participants at the Indonesia Talanoa Dialogue in Jakarta

CITIES AND REGIONSENGAGED IN A TOTAL OF

60 TALANOA EVENTSIN 40 COUNTRIES> 75% OF ALL

52 OFFICIAL CITIESAND REGIONS TALANOA DIALOGUESWERE HELD IN 37 COUNTRIES> 60% DIALOGUESOF NATIONAL

TOOK PLACE IN THE

GLOBAL SOUTH

8 SESSIONSSESSIONS

100% OF SESSIONSSTAKEHOLDERS

OF GOVERNMENTS

NATIONAL GOVERNMENTS OF

SOUTH AFRICA, FINLAND AND THE REPUBLIC
OF KOREA INVITED CITIES AND REGIONS TOENGAGED NON-GOVERNMENTAL

AUSTRIA, INDIA, JAPAN, NORWAY,PORTUGAL, TANZANIA, INDONESIAENGAGED AS CO-PARTNERSGATHERED ALL LEVELSHOSTED IN AFRICAN NATIONS,THE HIGHEST OF ANY REGION

THEIR NATIONAL TALANOAS

A selection of outcomes of the Cities and Regions Talanoa Dialogues#CITIES4TALANOA

Compiled by#REGIONS4TALANOA

Planning excerpt of Cities and Regions Talanoa Dialogue in Denver, USA

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ORGANIZING A TALANOA DIALOGUE
If you are interested in organizing Cities and Regions Talanoa Dialogue,
the text above may be useful for organizing it.

PARTICIPANT INFORMATION
National Government representatives:

Local and Regional Government representatives:

GUIDING QUESTIONS

FOCUS

WHERE ARE WE?

IMPLEMENT Plans
and actions under
the current Nationally
Determined Contribution(NDC) or other relevant
policies and legislations

WHERE DO WE
WANT TO GO?

RAISE Ambitions ofcurrent and future NDCs

HOW DO WEGET THERE?

DEVELOP Road
ahead for immediate,
mid-term, long-termtransformation

SPECIFIC ISSUES

Is sustainable urbanization adequately included in
the current NDCs?
How can local and regional governments help
national governments (including ministries of climatechange and urbanization) to seize the potentialof sustainable and integrated urban and territorial
development in the implementation of NDCs?

How can we raise national ambition throughenhanced multilevel governance?
What are the options to integrate commitments
and actions of local and regional governments in tocurrent and future NDCs ?

What measures and changes
are needed?

BEFORE
Were local and regional governments aware of their national NDCs? Have they already developed inventories-actionscommitments? Were they reported at carbonn Climate Registry or other national, supra-national, global platforms?

Were national governments aware of information from their local and regional governments?

22

The guiding questions and specific issues represent the topics for the assembled
participants to discuss. The “before” and “after” sections provide benchmarks for the event.

Other stakeholders:

ASSESSMENT / PROPOSED ACTIONS
1. Does the current NDC refer to national urban policy or does it have any specificreferences to urban sectors like buildings, transport/mobility, waste, demandside energy efficiency, renewable energy, sustainable consumption or production,
procurement, biodiversity (e.g: reality check with UN-Habitat document)?
2. If yes, are these consulted with the respective local and regional governments?
3. If not, is there any room to integrate existing plans, actions or commitments oflocal and regional governments into the current NDCs (e.g. captured at carbonn
Climate Registry or GCoM Commitment or others as appropriate), as well as thosedeveloped by other ministries responsible on urbanization

1. How can national commitments integrate existing and future commitments (e.g.
captured at carbonn Climate Registry or GCoM Commitment or others) of local andregional governments into current and future NDCs?
2. How can national givernments enhance the ability of local and regional
gvernments to adapt to the adverse impacts of climate change and foster climate
resilience through their multilevel engagement in NDCs or National Adaptation Plans(NAPs)?

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Link to Party NDC at http://www4.
unfccc.int/ndcregistry/Pages/Home.
aspx

Links of of participating cities andregions at the carbonn Climate
Registry (www.carbonn.org) or othernational, supra-national or global
sources of local and regional climate
action information

How can national governments collaborate with local and regional governments to mobilize appropriate capacity building,technical, financial resources and policy/legal framework to realize solutions addressed in delivering and raising ambition;in 2018, towards 2020, towards 2050?

AFTER
Are local and regional governments inspired by any of the plans from national governments? How are they planning to connect theirplans to existing actions/targets in the NDC?

How are national governments planning to revise NDC with information from and emgagement with local and regional
governments?

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Local and national governments must establish
reporting and data-management standards

According to the 2017 carbonn Climate Registry (cCR) report, an analysis of the data
voluntarily reported to the cCR reporting platform for subnational governments:“A key part of effective multilevel governance also involves tracking developments,
namely by using Measurement, Reporting and Verification (MRV) systems that
integrate climate action and reporting at and across all levels. We call this integrated
MRV. Integrated MRV means that national and subnational governments work together,coordinating reporting methodologies and sharing data to build a holistic picture of
mitigation and adaptation efforts at all levels. This allows for better analysis of current
opportunities and challenges, and can help governments define critical action areas.”
Using integrated MRV systems, such as the cCR , helps national and subnational
governments coordinate their climate action and allocate resources where they are mostneeded. This is because all actors are able to make comparable assessments about thesame set of data, and co-create objectives to meet the goals implied by that data. The overall
aggregability of MRV is also important, since it allows for more accurate global stocktaking
than would otherwise be possible.
Integrated MRV reduces parallel work, increases inefficient resource allocation and allows
nations to set their NDCs and model their overall emissions trajectory with confidence.
GCoM has developed new, harmonized standards for subnational climate reporting, whichfacilitates integrated MRV. This framework is designed to be consistent with national
government reporting requirements and the UNFCCC, and adjustable to local circumstances.
They build on the Global Protocol for Community-Scale Greenhouse Gas Emission
Inventories (GPC) developed ICLEI, WRI and C40.

LOCAL GOVERNMENTS NEED TO DEVELOP CLIMATE NEUTRALITY
PLANS TO SUPPORT NATIONAL GOALS.
All efforts that will contribute to the NDCs and overall climate progress will, at some point,
draw upon local resources and local deployment. This means that local governments havethe responsibility to create robust climate action plans that handle both their greenhousegas emissions targets and plans for climate adaptation. This responsibility, as outlined in
the preamble of the Paris Agreement, must be taken seriously. Even if a city does not havethe resources to commit to ambitious climate action, demonstrating sound planning andpromising ideal scenarios is a key step to building both financial and technical relationships.

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GOALS FOR CLIMATE NEUTRALITY PLANSGOAL 1: GO LOW-TO-NO
Achieve low or net-zero emissions through 100 percent renewable energy and other strategies, beginningin government operations and infrastructure with the aim to scale up to the community scale.

GOAL 2: DIVEST
Divest from fossil fuels and unsustainable practices, freeing up resources for sustainable investments.

GOAL 3: INVEST
Invest in ambitious mitigation and adaptation actions, actively implementing sustainable public
procurement and other strategies not always considered in climate planning.

GOAL 4: OFFSET
Offset any emissions that cannot be further reduced or avoided, ideally through UN recognizedmechanisms such as purchasing credits and donation to funds which support integrated, sustainableurban and territorial development. These offsetting opportunities may also be local and voluntary.

The organization of the Cities and Regions
Talanoa Dialogues has been made possible by:
LEAD HOST CITIES / REGIONS:• Accra• Balikpapan City
• Bogor City
• Bogor Regency• Bonn• City of Tshwane• Dodoma• Drammen• Edmonton• Guadalajara• Hanoi• Ichihara• Itabashi• Jakarta• Johannesburg• Lome• Lusaka• Manila• Mexico City
• Monrovia• Montreal• Nagoya• New Delhi• Quito• Seoul Metropolitan
Government• State of California• State of Sao Paulo• Tokyo Metropolitan
Government• Torres Vedras City
Council• Tshwane• Windhoek

LEAD PARTNERS:• Association of the Indonesia
Municipalities (APEKSI)• C40• Climate Alliance• Climate Chance Association• Covenant of Mayors in SubSaharan Africa (CoM SSA)
• Council of European
Municipalities and Regions(CEMR)• Federation of Canadian
Municipalities (FCM)• FRACTAL partners• Global Covenant of Mayors for
Climate & Energy (GCoM)• ICLEI - Local Governments for
Sustainability• India Ministry of Environment• The Committeeof the Regions

PARTNERS:• 6th Global Biodiversity
Summit of Local& Subnational
Governments (CBDS)• Assembly of Regionsand Districts of Côte
d’Ivoire (ARDCI)• Associationof Ecuadorian
Municipalities (AME)• CitiesIPCC• Climate Observatory• Climate Heritage
Network• EESC• EU• EU DG Climate• EUROCITIES• Fijian Government• Finnish Government• Government of Austria• Greenpeace• J-CLP• KS Norway• Korean Ministry ofEnvironment• Ministry of Environment
Japan• Ministry of Foreign
Affairs Japan• National Autonomous
University of Mexico(UNAM)• Norway Ministryof Climate andEnvironment• nrg4sd• Portuguese DG
Territorio• R20• RFSC• South Africa
Department ofEnvironmental Affairs• Tanzania Ministry ofEnvironment• The Alliance Center• UCLG• UFZ• UITP• UNFCCC - Marrakesh
Partnership• UN-Habitat• United Nations
Advisory Committeeof Local Authorities(UNACLA)• WUF9 Secretariat• WWF Brasil

25Submissions to the Cities and Regions
Talanoa Dialogue worldwide
The map below shows where Cities and Regions Talanoa Dialogues have been heldworldwide. The highlights showcase submissions to the global Talanoa process.

UNITED STATES OF AMERICAThe Global Climate Action Summit (GCAS),
which was a major mobilization of local actors,
combined with Talanoa events like the one heldin Denver, Colorado, highlight the political will
for state and regional actors to climate action.

QUITO, ECUADORA Memorandum of Understanding
established the GCoM as a coordinating
body for city-level climate action of Ecuador
after a successful Talanoa event in Quito.

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COMMITTEE OFREGIONS, EUROPE
In Europe, the Committee of the Regions isadvocating for the recognition of Locally
Determined Contributions within NDCs.

JAPAN
Four Talanoa events and the
158-member strong Japan
Climate Initiative highlight the
local commitment to verticaland horizontal cooperation.

TALANOA DIALOGUES IN AFRICAICLEI Africa releases Talanoa Dialogues in Africa,
which highlights key contributions from the Talanoa
events held across Africa and demonstrates clear
advancement towards multilevel action.

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Titletext#Cities4Talanoa#Regions4Talanoa
citiesandregions.org/talanoa

Facilitated byWith the support ofSpecial partners

In collaboration with:

ID-No. 1876372

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