As part of the 1st Resilient Green Cities Meeting, which took place in Brasilia on March 27th and 28th, ICLEI organized the launch of the LGMA National Coordination Group for COP 30 in Brazil. Since 1995, the Constituency of Local Governments and Municipal Authorities (LGMA) has represented local and regional government networks within the framework of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), as one of the nine Major Groups established at the Earth Summit (Rio-92), with the aim of facilitating stakeholder participation in the United Nations system.
The relevance of the LGMA and the Brazilian context
ICLEI is the LGMA’s spokesperson at the Climate COPs and seeks to represent and highlight the relevance of subnational governments in the implementation of climate policies, which ensures the presence of these actors in crucial spaces on the global sustainability agenda. One of the results of this advocacy work was the launch, during COP 28, of the High Ambition Coalition for Multi-Level Partnerships (CHAMP), a commitment signed by governments from several countries, including Brazil, which aims to improve consultation and collaboration between national and subnational leaders in the planning, financing, implementation and monitoring of Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and other national sustainability plans.
At COP 29 in 2024, Brazil presented an updated NDC, with a strong focus on collaboration between levels of government. Brazil’s new NDC makes a “Commitment to climate federalism between the Union, States and Municipalities”, with a direct reference to CHAMP. Taking this into account and also the strong engagement of Brazilian local government networks and associations demonstrated in the discussions on the COP 30 agenda, ICLEI, as the Constituency’s focal point, proposed the creation of an LGMA National Coordination Group for COP 30 in Brazil, also considering that many of the organizations that are part of the LGMA at a global level have operations in the country.
The event to launch the Coordination Group was attended by the Minister of Cities, Jader Barbalho Filho, who stressed the importance of local governments working together in advance of the COPs and recognized COP 30 as an opportunity to make global leaders understand the reality of an Amazonian city, which is usually outside the axis of cities that host this type of event. “The federated entities of Brazil and the world need to play a leading role in COP 30 because it is in the cities where the problems are concentrated, as in the city of Barcarena (PA), where the population suffers from a lack of basic sanitation, the consequences of flooding and where they need more housing units,” he said.
Meeting of the organizations that are part of the LGMA
The event to launch the LGMA’s National Coordination Group for COP 30 in Brazil brought together key players from the Constituency, as well as associations and coalitions of sub-national, municipal and state governments, who are active and interested parties in implementing the national and global climate agenda at local level. The aim was to promote a debate on the proposed functioning of the group and also to provide comments and suggestions on how to leverage climate federalism within the framework of COP 30. Helinah Cardoso, a representative of the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy (GCoM) and the C40 network, took the opportunity to highlight the objective of creating CHAMP, which is to increase the ambition of cities to advance in the implementation of the NDCs: “The COP needs to recognize multi-level partnerships and CHAMP as a positive contribution to advancing the NDCs and climate ambitions and actions”.
Organizations such as the Brazilian Association of Municipalities (ABM), the Brazilian Association of State Environmental Entities (Abema), the National Front of Mayors (FNP), the Under 2 Coalition, UN-Habitat, among other partners, were also present and were able to comment on the priorities of the urban agenda for COP30.
The meeting was also attended by Yunus Arikan, ICLEI’s Director of Global Advocacy and focal point of the LGMA Constituency, who pointed out that this is the first time that a national LGMA coordination has been set up and that this already represents a Brazilian legacy for the COPs process. “In the countries we’ve been to before, there were no networks and no demand like this. So there is a legacy that should serve as inspiration and I was very happy to see global and national partners gathered here showing how we can move forward,” Yunus concluded. He also presented to the group how the constituency is organized at a global level and what the main advocacy opportunities are for the LGMA this year.
ICLEI will continue to facilitate the group to strengthen the representativeness of local governments and ensure that municipalities and states in Brazil and around the world have their interests represented during the COP 30 discussions in Brazil. In this way, it is hoped that the creation of the LGMA national coordination group will be a legacy for future COPs.
About ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability
ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability is the world’s largest intergovernmental organization for sustainable development, working with more than 2,500 local and regional governments. ICLEI actively supports local governments in promoting sustainable action, further enhancing global sustainability efforts. Active in more than 130 countries, the organization influences sustainability policies for zero-carbon, nature-based, equitable, resilient and circular development.
About the Constituency of Local Governments and Municipal Authorities (LGMA)
Since 1995, the Constituency of Local Governments and Municipal Authorities (LGMA) has acted as a representative of local and regional government networks within the framework of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), being one of the nine Major Groups established at the Earth Summit with the aim of facilitating stakeholder participation in the United Nations system. ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability is the LGMA’s spokesperson at the Climate COPs, and acts by influencing the UNFCCC negotiations, mobilizing the participation of local and regional leaders at the conferences, setting the agenda for action, collaborating with the presidencies of the COPs, promoting multi-level action and ensuring that the voices and demands of sub-national governments are heard.
Contact
Fernanda Gouveia Fonseca – ICLEI South America Communications Analyst: fernanda.fonseca@iclei.org