World Summit
Climate & Territories
General Declaration
Lyon, Rhône-Alpes Region, 2nd July 2015
Fighting against
climate change, by limiting global warming below 2°C, while keeping in
perspective the adequacy of a 1.5°C objective as stated in the Cancun Agreements, is a challenge
for humankind. It puts an obligation on our national Governments as well as on
all groups and individuals who can take action to do so. Each should take its
part of this global responsibility.
Meeting together
for two days in Lyon, in the Rhône Alpes Region, through the international
networks which represent them, these non-State actors, as non-Party
stakeholders acting besides Contracting Parties to the UNFCCC (United Nations
Framework Convention on Climate Change) have strongly stated their common will to
take on this challenge by aligning their daily local and regional actions with the
decarbonization of the world economy scenario, taking into account the various
national, regional and local circumstances and respective capabilities, and considering
that the future of society is to be designed within the perspective of a
low-carbon, resilient economy.
The World Summit
Climate & Territories is not an isolated event. It reinforces a long-term dynamic
aiming at building political momentum of non-Party stakeholders towards climate
action. It relies on previous resolutions of local and subnational Governments’
networks such as the Local Government Climate Roadmaps (Bali, 2007 and Nantes,
2013), the Durban Adaptation Charter (2009); the World Summits of States and
Regions in Montreal (2005), Rio (2012), and Paris (2014); as well as the Bordeaux
and Yamoussoukro Declarations (2015). In addition, it builds upon the joint
declarations of non-Party stakeholders “Catalyzing
Action” (New York, 2014), the Lifou declaration (Oceania 21), or made at
the MEDCOP21 (Marseille, 2015). It will feed into next major steps of the
global mobilisation of territorial stakeholders (Ontario, Bogota, etc.) in the run up to the Climate
Summit for Local Leaders, scheduled on 4th December in Paris. The World Summit Climate & Territories is an opportunity for
participatory dialogue, commitments and proposals across all types of non-Party
stakeholders, reaching an unprecedented level of synergies and representativeness.
With our
different origins, cultures and approaches, we, participants to the Summit, wish to collectively
claim our commitment and points of agreement, and we therefore declare our
support for a collaborative approach to the fight against climate change:
We support a local and subnational approach to
climate action
Firstly, we
consider that the fight against climate change cannot be achieved without a truly local and subnational
approach that takes into account economic, social,
cultural and environmental realities. A successful strategy against climate
change requires public policies and non-State actors’ measures to be articulated
on the basis of a robust local approach, with a strong view to strengthening
local and regional governance, to fostering fundamental rights protection and a
sustainable human and gender-sensitive development. The 21st
Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC (United Nations Framework Convention on
Climate Change) due to take place in December 2015 in Paris will therefore have
to acknowledge the need for such a local community-based approach. With this in
mind, we welcome the introduction of the so-called “Solutions’ Agenda” as a
fourth pillar within the Lima-Paris Action Agenda in order to ensure a
successful outcome in Paris and we underline our commitment to upscale the
level of ambition by 2020 and beyond.
We affirm that global
trends of negotiations on development and climate cannot be addressed
separately: synergies are necessary between the discussions around the Financing
for development Conference, the Post-2015 Development Agenda, Habitat III and
COP21. Measures aiming at limiting climate change must also help face the other
great challenges of our century and vice-versa, such as poverty alleviation,
access to sustainable energy, water, and other resources, sustainable urban and
rural development, food sovereignty, gender equality, decent work and workers'
rights, including those of farmers; respect for the right of indigenous peoples,
protection of forests and biodiversity, preservation of natural resources etc. Affirming
and demonstrating these synergies is necessary to engage all stakeholders into
a successful greenhouse gas emissions phase-out pathway.
Particular
attention should be paid to adaptation actions, which have to foster resilience
and a sustainable development at the local and subnational level, building on local and
regional initiatives and traditional knowledge; the need to ensure a fair
transition for territories, companies, and their employees during this period
of transformation towards a low-carbon economy; and the need to strengthen the
influence of women and their capacity for action, in particular in local
governance. We also recognize the fundamental role of education, since raising awareness among the youngest generations and strengthening their
ability to take action are crucial challenges in a changing world.
We emphasize the importance of financing for territorial
initiatives
Setting up new
financial resources is a necessary prerequisite for strengthening local and subnational
capacities, with a view to developing a strong global action towards increasing
the number of actions at the local and subnational level. Based on our
experience, we know that engaging into a low-carbon, resilient economy will create
jobs, bring significant savings and improve the quality of livelihoods thanks to social and environmental
co-benefits in a number of areas. We call on
national Governments and financial institutions to upscale financial resources
dedicated to the fight against climate change, to create new mechanisms (guarantee
facilities, green bonds, third party financing, internalization of carbon costs
in the economy) with a view to increasing the capacity of actions. We support
the engagement of businesses and labour unions into this collective endeavor; the association of all
local and subnational stakeholders in the development, implementation, and
evaluation of projects; as well as a local approach of energy challenges.
We believe it is
crucial that local and subnational Governments in developing countries get
privileged access to international facilities, such as the Green Climate Fund. Enhancing
their ability to set up financially safe projects should be a priority of the
international agenda. Likewise, we believe it is relevant to explore whether specific
funds dedicated to local and regional action could be rapidly established;
revenues of such facilities could be provided directly by subnational
Governments themselves or through innovative financial instruments. Given the
increasing array of financing mechanisms (public development aid, loans or
public or private guarantees, allocation of revenue from carbon taxes, philanthropy,
etc.), we advocate an integrated approach that will create synergies between
these different sources, which have so far rarely coordinated their
efforts.
We commit to keep acting and to strengthen our
engagement
Pledges formulated
in Lyon by international networks’ leaders, especially Heads of Governments,
Mayors, Prime Ministers, Governors or Presidents who can commit on behalf of
their Governments, are a major contribution to the elaboration of the Solutions’
agenda and a credible scenario to stabilize the climate. These collective
commitments are not theoretical. They originate in concrete results in a number of territories that
have already managed successfully to reduce their GHG emissions and have undertaken ambitious climate adaptation policies. These
initiatives, which are supported by the networks of local and subnational
Governments, the Covenant of Mayors, the Compact of States and Regions, and the
Compact of Mayors, today testifies to this engagement. We therefore recommend
regular and independent evaluations of actions that have been taken, as well as
reliable, easily accessible accounting of avoided emissions. Such accounting
will build trust, as much as fulfilling financial needs through pledges to
provide support. In order to back this movement, we will further develop the
sharing of good practices and cooperation between local and subnational
Governments; we will reinforce dialogue and synergies across all non-Party stakeholders
and involve citizens, men and women, into the elaboration and the
implementation of action plans.
In line with the
outcome of the World Summit Climate & Territories workshops, we pledge to
support coalitions for action bringing together all relevant stakeholders in
the fields of low-carbon transport, development of renewable energy, sustainable
housing, access to sustainable energy, right to food, etc. We call upon national
Governments to support the proposals, which have been collectively elaborated by
consensus within the workshops of the Summit,
with the aim of strengthening concrete ways of action for non-State actors. And
we urge all national Governments to include measures implemented by their
non-State entities into their own Intended Nationally Determined Contributions
(INDCs), and to draw full benefits from local and subnational Governments’
actions.
Our pledges have
been formulated on the basis of a dialogue between non-Party stakeholders, with
their own various experiences and roots. They should support ambitious
contributions from national Governments for a robust, binding, equitable and universal
agreement in Paris,
that will serve as a clear call to action for the collective good. Responses to climate challenge must therefore include reinforced
international regulations, strengthened cooperation between and within territories,
as well as equality and solidarity between all the inhabitants of our fragile
planet. What brings us together is the conviction that the answer to this
challenge relies on everybody’s action.
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