A few years ago, the Campinas Metropolitan Region (RMC) experienced its worst water crisis, with rainfall falling 65% below the region's historical average. In 2016, the Municipality of Campinas faced a climatic phenomenon called a microburst, a cloud laden with air and water that caused strong winds of up to 120 km/h, seriously affecting the city's urban infrastructure.

These events demonstrated that the Campinas Metropolitan Region (RMC), like most urban centers in Brazil, is vulnerable to the impacts of climate change and that this discussion is increasingly relevant in the daily lives of cities. With the intention of addressing this agenda from a regional perspective, the Municipality of Campinas, together with ICLEI-Local Governments for Sustainability and Waycarbon, held the seminar: Climate Dialogues in Campinas, which debated the importance of developing an inventory of Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions for the RMC.

The seminar provided an opportunity to share with political actors, technicians, and civil society in the region the importance of bringing the implementation of actions to address climate change in the region to the political agenda.

The emissions inventory, which involves all 20 municipalities in the RMC (Metropolitan Region of Campinas), will estimate the amount of GHG emissions in the region and identify the most intensive sectors and activities, as well as those most relevant for reduction actions. The study represents the first step towards developing a policy to address climate change and will allow for the definition of GHG reduction targets and the establishment of an action plan for the region.

According to Rogério Menezes, the Municipal Secretary for Green Areas, Environment and Sustainable Development of Campinas, the creation of the inventory in the region is very important and demonstrates that actions to address climate change must be carried out by local governments.

“When we participated in the Conference of the Parties (COP23) in Germany, we saw how more than 500 local leaders made an urgent appeal for action to combat climate change, because national governments are slow to act. Society's need regarding the climate agenda requires action and less talk. Therefore, speaking here about the preparation of the first regional GHG inventory reinforces this call to action,” he stated.

This movement represents a clear reflection of the assimilation of local governments into the implementation of global sustainability agendas, according to the Executive Secretary of ICLEI South America, Rodrigo Perpétuo.

“Ten years ago, it was impossible to imagine the importance of municipalities and organized civil society organizations leading a policy to address climate change linked to an international movement, such as the Paris Agreement. This is no small feat; it truly empowers municipalities to carry out this work in their cities,” he emphasized.

The event was held at the Campinas City Council headquarters and brought together the Municipal Secretary of Green Areas, Environment and Sustainable Development of Campinas, Rogério Menezes, the City Councilor and President of the Permanent Environment Committee of the Campinas City Council, Luiz Carlos Rossini, the Executive Director of the Campinas Metropolitan Agency, Ester Viana, the Executive Secretary of ICLEI South America, Rodrigo Perpétuo, the Managing Partner of WayCaron, Felipe Bittencourt, and representatives from the environmental secretariats of the municipalities in the metropolitan region.

The inventory will be carried out by Waycarbon, the company that won the tender held in 2016, and will include the participation of ICLEI South America in training the technical team on the subject. The technology offered will allow for more tangible results focused on public policy strategy in all cities of the RMC (Metropolitan Region of Campinas), said WayCaron's Managing Partner, Felipe Bittencourt.

Next steps

As part of the plan to develop the GHG emissions inventory, the municipalities will have an initial training session in the second week of June, in which the environmental secretaries and technicians from the RMC (Metropolitan Region of Campinas) will be introduced to the GPC (Global Protocol for Community-Scale Greenhouse Gas Emissions Inventories) methodology.

The goal of these training sessions, of which there will be five in total, is to train technicians from municipalities in the metropolitan region so that they have the capacity to develop the calculations and prepare their inventories autonomously, stated Cezar Capacle, Cabinet Advisor of the Municipal Secretariat for Green Areas, Environment and Sustainable Development of Campinas.