The Latin America and Caribbean Climate Week began today in Salvador, Bahia. Organized annually in Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, and Asia-Pacific, the Regional Climate Weeks are collaborative platforms for representatives from the public and private sectors and civil society organizations to address pressing climate issues and provide opportunities for uniting purposes for joint action.

To increase the visibility of actions led by cities and regions that are proposing innovations and new opportunities in their territories related to low emissions and resilience, ICLEI South America has a delegation of local governments promoting various activities throughout the week.

On this first day, we brought together representatives from different levels of government and institutions working on this topic for a Multilevel Dialogue on the Brazilian MRV system. The discussion was opened by Rodrigo Perpétuo, Executive Secretary of ICLEI South America; Oswaldo Lucon, Executive Coordinator of the Brazilian Forum on Climate Change; Cristina Carvalho, from the Development and Cooperation Section of the European Union; João Resch Leal, Municipal Undersecretary for Sustainability, Innovation and Resilience in Salvador; Alain Grimard, Senior International Officer, UN-Habitat; and Luiz Ricardo Santoro, Secretary of Infrastructure and Environment of the State Government of São Paulo.

Rodrigo Perpétuo emphasized that for monitoring actions to be effective, they need to be considered in decision-making: “Climate inventories and action plans must run parallel to a municipal governance planning system. Our challenge is to give centrality to this monitoring tool so that it can truly guide the local development model in terms of public policy decisions.”.

Oswaldo Lucon stated that the Brazilian Forum on Climate Change has a strong interest in maintaining its strategies and continuing the work already carried out, especially with subnational governments.

Continuing the discussion, Sophia Picarelli, Biodiversity and Climate Change Manager at ICLEI South America, highlighted the importance of exchanges and alignments between public spheres during the panel: Perspectives from the three levels of government.

“We want to move forward with multi-level dialogue, but we see that the initiatives are still very isolated; the problem is that climate emergencies don't allow us to wait.” He exemplified this by saying: “Urban-LEDS II is, in this sense, an important guideline for local climate planning, allowing us to land on concrete methodologies. The capacity lies within the territories; with good support, we can scale up and boost local capacities.”.

At the close of the activities held on this first day, a group of nine child ambassadors for climate justice from Plant-For-The-Planet, a German NGO partnered with ICLEI South America, read a manifesto expressing their concern about the advance of deforestation and pollution, and calling on all of society to actively participate in reforestation and environmental preservation efforts. “We have learned from climate science and understand that one of the solutions is the massive planting of trees, which needs to be continuous, to capture CO2 from the atmosphere. We are committed to helping plant 1 trillion trees, and you?”, reads an excerpt from the manifesto.

As she left the stage, 9-year-old student Ianna Cristina Pimenta Ribeira gave her testimony: “We want to help the environment, to make the world a better place. Because if we don't do it now, we won't be able to do it in the future.”.

Closing out the ICLEI South America program, on Monday evening, the first meeting of the national advisory group for the Urban-LEDS II project took place.

Check it out here full agenda From the ICLEI South America delegation: bit.ly/agendaICLEI_LACCW.

Read the full manifesto of the Climate Justice Ambassadors:

We are part of Plant-For-The-Planet's network of over 81,000 climate justice ambassadors, and we are here to show our concern about the increasing deforestation and pollution caused by industries, government, and agriculture that are ignoring science and contributing to the worsening greenhouse effect, rising global temperatures, and leading us towards a climate crisis.

We've learned from climate science and understand that one solution is the massive, continuous planting of trees to capture CO2 from the atmosphere. We've committed to helping plant 1 trillion trees, and you? We need help; we need public awareness about the importance of reforestation and preservation. We want our politicians to uphold the agreements already made so that together we can build a better world.

Inaction will affect not only our future, but the future of all people, which is why we signed this manifesto, along with scientist Carlos Nobre: because we are committed to helping ensure that it exists.