Exchanging around cooperation best practices between different levels of governance in the fight against global warming was the aim of the round table that the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) held online on 18 January 2021. A joint contribution to the World Democracy Forum which reinforced the feeling that "local action is vital if were to have any long-lasting solutions to the impact of climate change on our lives ".
All Council of Europe member states are committed to the United Nations Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development and are signatories of the Paris Agreement. These international commitments have been translated at the European level by the adoption of the European Green Pact which seeks to develop a sustainable economy. Nevertheless, national, regional and local authorities are confronted with the challenges on the ground as well as difficulties in implementing measures decided at international level. That is why Vladimir Prebilic (Slovenia, SOC/G/PD), the Congress' thematic spokesperson on climate change and environment, opened the discussion by stressing the need to incorporate local and regional authorities in the development of national and international climate strategies. He explained that territories are directly affected by the consequences of climate change and that they can share their experience with the national level. Indeed, mayors are directly called upon to find answers to rising sea levels, floods, drought, heat waves, water scarcity, etc. and to take into account the importance of climate change issues in developing national and international climate strategies. Hence the emergence of international exchange and coordination initiatives such as the Covenant of Mayors for Climate.
According to Belinda Gottardi, Congress member, CEMR's climate spokesperson and political administrator in the Covenant of Mayors for climate and energy - Europe (Italy, SOC/G/PD), this is a new movement that aims both to implement SDGs and to support local and regional elected representatives in managing global environmental challenges through a flexible yet robust framework. More specifically, the Covenant seeks to build bridges between the different levels of governance - local, regional, national, and European - and to find additional mechanisms for financing local environmental policies. The Covenant also contributes to making visible - at international level - the initiatives of local representatives who have taken unprecedented economic and social measures in the context of the health crisis, without sacrificing environmental objectives. Hence the need to significantly increase the budgets of municipalities and regions in order to help them contribute to EU policies aimed at achieving climate neutrality by 2050.
The President of the United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG) network, Mohamed Boudra, who is also President of the Moroccan Associations of Presidents of Local Councils (AMPCC) and Deputy Head of the Moroccan delegation of the Congress (Morocco, NR), presented the network’s objectives based on its commitment to representing, defending and amplifying the voices of local and regional elected representatives at the international level in the implementation of the SDGs. He stressed that it is essential to localise the SDGs because each territory has its own specificities and asked the Congress to support UCLG’s request for an observer status at the United Nations. Mr Boudra, in his capacity as Mayor of Al Hoceima and AMPCC President, warned of the risk that the local way of thinking might run out of steam as a result of being marginalised by national and international bodies. Hence the decisive role of the Congress, since – according to him – "hope in the climate field lies precisely in local and regional expertise".
In this regard, the intervention made by Mr José Manuel Fernandes (Portugal, EPP), Member of the European Parliament and Vice-President of the Green New Deal Intergroup, made it clear that the objectives of the European Union's Green Pact cannot work without concrete commitments from local and regional governments. It is therefore essential to know the role of each stakeholder so that fair partnerships which leave no one out of the equation can be forged and economic and social territorial cohesion achieved. The issue is global and the objectives are common; coordination is the key to ensure that no decision is taken to the detriment of the environment.
In addition to taking into account local expertise and action, there is also the possibility of giving local and regional authorities specific rights in environmental matters which could be part of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). This is the opinion of Mr Simon Moutquin (Belgium, SOC), PACE rapporteur on "Anchoring the right to a healthy environment: the need for stronger Council of Europe action". According to this young Green politician, the process of drafting an additional protocol to the ECHR on environmental matters has been gathering pace since 2020, suggesting that the right of appeal attached to it would not only be individual but also collective, enabling local and regional authorities to take legal action.
The increasing number of applications to the European Court of Human Rights on the grounds of environmental rights in recent years has stimulated reflection on this additional protocol, stressed Mrs Sibel Arslan (Switzerland, SOC), PACE's general rapporteur on local and regional authorities. She shared the Swiss example of the acquittal by the courts of certain environmental actions disturbing public order yet justified by climate emergency. Ms Arslan also drew attention to the importance of helping developing countries because it is important that all countries, even the least fortunate, have the means to work for the environment. The debate showed that, both politically and legally, progress in environmental matters provides ground for hope that together, citizens and elected representatives can succeed in reversing the effects of climate disasters and change.
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.
