Resolution of the Committee of the Regions COP 19 UNFCCC – Advancing the International Climate Change Agenda
Date: 2013-10-09
Institutions: European Committee of the Regions
Subjects: UN Environment Programme, UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, climate change, environmental cooperation, international cooperation, reduction of gas emissions








C_2013356EN.01000101.xml










5.12.2013   


EN


Official Journal of the European Union


C 356/1





Resolution of the Committee of the Regions COP 19 UNFCCC – Advancing the International Climate Change Agenda
2013/C 356/01
THE COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS






1.


declares its full support to the joint EU position and calls on all the Parties involved in COP 19 to take the necessary steps towards an international legally binding climate change agreement aimed at limiting global warming below 2 degree Celsius to be concluded by 2015, and implemented by 2020;










2.


calls on negotiators to rediscover a sense of urgency and to move forward on raising ambition in the new agreement;










3.


insists that national governments and the EU will only be able to meet their targets with the active involvement of the local and regional authorities which are most directly affected by the impact of climate change and are responsible in large parts for policy implementation; therefore also underlines the need for ‘spatially resolved’ data on the impact of climate change and adaptation strategies;










4.


calls for mainstreaming of climate change action in all sectors and budgets at all levels of governance and points out that many sectors in need of reform, including energy, agriculture, buildings, spatial planning, waste and transport, fall in the remits of local or regional authorities;










5.


therefore asks international authorities and the EU delegation to involve local and regional authorities prominently in the international climate change negotiations and implementation processes, and to recognise their potential role in facilitating the negotiations;










6.


welcomes the UN Secretary-General's proposal to hold a world leaders' climate summit in September 2014; believes that the involvement of local and regional authorities would be necessary for an effective summit;










7.


draws attention to the fact that the atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration is now surpassing the critical threshold of 400 ppm and is also very concerned by the so called ‘gigatonne gap’ between measures negotiators agreed to implement and measures which still need to be adopted in order to keep global warming below 2 degree Celsius;










8.


recognises the uncertainties associated with climate modelling and delivering the reductions and therefore advocates a precautionary approach to adaptation policy that anticipates the impact of more than 2 degrees temperature increase;










9.


fully supports the approach that the expected 2015 UN agreement on climate change should cover not only mitigation but also adaptation, and underlines the importance of treating them with the same level of priority;










10.


urges negotiators to honour the commitment of USD 100 billion to the Green Climate Fund and to operationalise the concept of ‘loss and damage’ as agreed during the Conference of the Parties in Doha in 2012;










11.


welcomes and encourages further progress on forestry, notably on methodological aspects of the UN programme on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+); also notes that financing possibilities in this domain should be increased accordingly;










12.


stresses the essential role of the Land use, land-use change and forestry (LULUCF) sector in mitigating the effects of climate change but insists on the necessity to take into account rural sustainable development and food security, particularly in developing countries;










13.


reiterates that building resilience to climate change, in particular among the most vulnerable regions of the world and among the most vulnerable members of society, is crucial if the agreement is to be equitable;










14.


asks for future emissions reductions and all other mitigation measures to be distributed fairly across the whole of the international community, with due consideration to the different capabilities and starting positions of countries and regions;










15.


in this context, calls also for a comprehensive structural reform of the EU Emission Trading Scheme;










16.


draws attention to the urgent need to encourage synergies between adaptation and mitigation activities by sharing lessons learnt and good practices, and by promoting research and innovation and policy coordination;










17.


stresses that the EU has demonstrated that the de-coupling of CO2 emissions from GDP-growth is possible; reiterates that the EU must continue to lead by example and implement ambitious and binding targets such as those for the reduction of CO2 emissions, renewable energy and energy efficiency;










18.


underlines the efforts of cities and regions across Europe that have adopted local or regional climate and energy strategies or initiatives with the power to raise ambition at national level such as the European Green Capital scheme or the Covenant of Mayors, whose signatories commit themselves to reduce the CO2 emissions by more than the 20 % by the year 2020;










19.


calls for the efforts of municipalities and regions to be recognised and made part of the MRV (measurable, reportable and verifiable) accounting system;










20.


calls for more information sharing worldwide and confirms its commitment to the Memorandum of Understanding it has signed with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) to promote synergies between the different levels of governance and improve the implementation of multilateral environmental agreements; reiterates in this context also its commitment to the Memorandum of Understanding signed with the US Conference of Mayors and to the future agreement with the mayors of China;










21.


calls for future EU strategies to use the potential of multilateral decentralised cooperation with third countries, and draws attention to the specific instruments it has developed to facilitate this cooperation;










22.


would like ‘climate criteria’ to be fully taken into account in the various EU funding instruments, including European development policy (EDP);










23.


draws attention to the fact that subnational governments and local authorities have been given increased recognition in the Cancun Agreement, and reiterates its call for a multi-level governance approach in global environmental policy; therefore calls for a clear commitment from the UNFCCC parties to involve and support subnational governments and local authorities in the implementation of UNFCCC decisions, following the example of Decision X/22 of the Convention on Biological Diversity;










24.


instructs the President of the Committee of the Regions to submit this resolution to the President of the European Parliament, the President of the European Council, the President of the European Commission, the Lithuanian Presidency of the EU and the Secretariat of the UNFCCC.





Brussels, 9 October 2013.


The President of the Committee of the Regions

Ramón Luis VALCÁRCEL SISO