On 18 January 2021, the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) held an online debate on the responsibility of parliamentarians and local and regional elected representatives in the fight against climate change. A joint contribution to the World Democracy Forum, the event highlighted the role and critical importance of elected representatives in safeguarding and developing democratic procedures, without which governments will not be able to secure public support for measures to adapt to the climate emergency.
The climate crisis and its health, economic and social consequences represent a crucial test for representative democracy both in Europe and the world. "Measures decided at national and international level to combat climate change can only succeed if local and regional elected representatives make a decisive contribution", stressed Gunn Marit Helgesen, Vice-President of the Congress (Norway, EPP/CCE).
As a matter of fact, local democracy plays a fundamental role in raising awareness on climate issues, but also on solving practical problems experienced by residents and businesses. This is why the Congress is called upon to play a key role in mobilising local and regional action to protect the planet and citizens' health: through the exchange of good practices, the strengthening of the principle of subsidiarity, but also by extending the "freedom to act" of local and regional authorities, a real autonomy in the fight against climate change which needs to be ensured. Hence Mrs Helgesen's support for the idea of an additional protocol to the European Charter of Local Self-Government which would recognise the role and further guarantee the political, administrative and financial independence of local elected representatives in environmental matters. Mrs Helgesen insists - in her capacity as Co-President of the Council of European Municipalities and Regions (CEMR) and First Vice-President of the Norwegian Association of Local and Regional Authorities (Norway, EPP/CCE) – that local and regional elected representatives are best placed to respond to the climate emergency because they know the specificities of communities and can act on many factors related to climate change, including local production and consumption habits, land and energy use planning, private and public transport etc. Not to mention that it is above all at local and regional level that citizens rally to demand concrete measures in support of the environment.
While the action of local and regional authorities in the implementation of SDGs is sometimes minimised it is crucial to examine at regional level the Sustainable Development Goals(SDGs) set by the UN Agenda 2030 according to Magnus Berntsson, President of the Assembly of European Regions (AER) and also Vice-President of the Regional Council and Regional Minister for the Environment of Västra Götaland (Sweden, EPP/CCE). By adapting these objectives to the situation on the ground and enriching them with grassroot ideas, regional authorities could stimulate the support and mobilisation from various stakeholders and populations. This should be achieved in particular through the development of skills on climate change issues which are often lacking at local and regional level, insists the AER President.
Relying on the collective wisdom of participatory assemblies would be another possible way of getting citizens to adhere to environmental protection measures. For George Papandreou (Greece, SOC), PACE rapporteur on "A more participatory democracy to tackle climate change", the fight against environmental decline must first and foremost overcome citizens' mistrust. Hence the need to include them in the search for adequate responses to the climate crisis, independently of the interests of financial and industrial lobbies, relying on the massive mobilisation of young people.
As pointed out by Jennifer De Temmerman, Chair of the Sub-Committee on Public Health and Sustainable Development and PACE rapporteur on "Inaction on climate change - a violation of children's rights" (France, ALDE), the effectiveness of government measures to combat climate change depends to a large extent on compensatory social measures that would avoid resistance from the population (see the case of the yellow jackets movement in France). Organising citizens' conventions that could directly influence the legislative process in this area would also be a preferred option. Speaking of involving children in the deliberations of elected representatives, she also opened the debate on the relationship between climate action and the right of children to inherit a liveable world. In this context, the Council of Europe could strengthen its legal instruments in environmental matters by drafting an additional protocol to the Declaration of Human Rights stipulating the right to live in a healthy, safe and secure environment, stressed Andreas Nick, PACE Vice-President (Germany, EPP/CD).
Since 2012, the World Forum for Democracy has become an annual event, offering citizens from all over the world the opportunity to question democracy, analyse its flaws and limits, but also to generate new ideas to respond to the challenges facing democracy. Dedicated to responses to the environmental crisis, the 9th edition of the Forum was launched on 18 November and will mobilise intellectuals, politicians, activists, experts and young people from all over the world for a whole year until the Forum is held in Strasbourg in November 2021.
