Cities can bring CHAMP to life

At the ICLEI World Congress 2024 closing plenary on 21 June, a call to action deriving from this year’s Daring Cities Forum resonated loud and clear: Katja Dörner, Mayor of Bonn, Germany, and chair of the Climate Action Governance Portfolio for the ICLEI Global Executive Committee, urged mayors to mobilize their national city associations to call on their governments support for climate ambition through multilevel action and multilevel NDCs. Those should be aligned with COP28’s CHAMP (Coalition for High Ambition Multilevel Partnerships) initiative which aims to pursue efforts across all levels of governments for enhanced NDCs by 2025. 

National associations of local governments in Germany, Brazil, and the United States have already pledged their support for CHAMP; others, like Finland, are underway. They are all pioneering a global movement to push for stronger local involvement in national climate plans. “I invite urban leaders to replicate similar initiatives in your countries and share your progress with us at the annual Daring Cities Bonn Dialogues and report to UNFCCC,” urged Mayor Dörner.

Launched by the COP28 Presidency in Dubai, the CHAMP initiative has a clear goal: Enhance multilevel cooperation to collectively pursue efforts for the next round of submitting revised Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) due in 2025 at COP30.

Seventy-two countries have endorsed CHAMP, committing to integrate their local, regional, and other subnational governments in NDCs’ planning, financing, and implementation. 

With CHAMP elevating cities and other subnationals as partners in climate action, the initiative represents a significant step towards integrating local and regional actions with national climate plans. This is crucial, as a recent UN-Habitat report analyzed the climate commitments of 194 countries and found that only 27% of NDCs have strong urban content, with the rest including moderate to no urban mentions at all – which means a huge potential lost to the respective NDCs in these cases.

In order to close this gap, subnational governments must now foster direct engagement with national governments who have endorsed CHAMP to gather input on their commitments. This action will help them identify areas where local contributions are needed to swiftly and effectively implement concrete strategies for submitting enhanced NDCs. 

Co-convened by ICLEI and the Federal City of Bonn, Daring Cities 2024 offers a supportive platform fostering collaboration between national and subnational governments to accelerate and stocktake the implementation of ambitious, inclusive and multilevel climate action.

During the Daring Cities Bonn Dialogues on 3-5 June, a first CHAMP endorser roundtable convened by the Local Governments and Municipal Authorities (LGMA) Constituency gathered representatives from 20 CHAMP endorser countries alongside mayors and other key stakeholders who gathered to share progress and strategize on fulfilling their commitments ahead of COP30. “It’s time to bring CHAMP to life,” said Mayor Dörner at the occasion.

German cities pioneering support for CHAMP

Concrete actions quickly followed, with the Association of German Cities (Deutschen Städtetag, DST) pledging for CHAMP.  Mayor Dörner, Vice President of the DST, spearheaded this effort by pushing forward a resolution by the DST, marking the first national position of local governments supporting CHAMP. Representing around 3,200 cities and municipalities and 53 million inhabitants, DST is also the largest association of local governments united to support the initiative.

Adopted on 5 June, the resolution expresses DST’s willingness to actively shape European and international developments in climate protection and climate adaptation, calling on the Federal Government to initiate a permanent and structured dialogue process where all relevant actors, especially cities, must be involved.

“The DST calls on the German government to drive the establishment of a new collaboration and consultation platform between cities, their networks, and the federal government for a new multilevel National Climate Plan by 2025,” detailed Mayor Dörner during the ICLEI World Congress 2024 closing plenary.

Cities in Brazil and the United States follow the lead

“We all have the responsibility to build increasing political support for CHAMP to ensure this process truly empowers cities with decision-making authority. Cities must be at the decision-making table, and I’m confident that with the support of ICLEI, we will achieve such advances,” said Axel Grael, Mayor of Niterói, Brazil, and chair of the Climate Action Support Portfolio for the ICLEI Global Executive Committee, during the ICLEI World Congress’ closing plenary.

Concrete actions backed Mayor Grael’s words. As Vice President of the Frente Nacional de Prefeitas e Prefeitos (FNP), he led the FNP’s endorsement of CHAMP. On 17 June, during the ICLEI World Congress, the FNP organized a parallel meeting where representatives from cities across Brazil released a letter of commitment pledging support for CHAMP and calling for agility in structuring Multilevel Climate Governance in Brazil. The letter also reaffirmed the commitment of Brazilian cities to collaborate with state and federal governments in executing and implementing international climate agreements assumed by Brazil.

This announcement, which came just two weeks after the resolution by the DST, marked a significant milestone for local governments, as the FNP represents 450 cities, covering 74% of the Brazilian economy and 61% of the population. “This support, which began with German cities and now includes the FNP, will greatly strengthen efforts to elevate the role of municipalities in the national climate process,” said Mayor Grael during the commitment letter release.

Following the actions of local government associations in Germany and Brazil, the United States Conference of Mayors released a similar resolution. Co-sponsored by Barbara Buffaloe, Mayor of Columbia, Missouri, USA, who serves on the ICLEI Regional Executive Committee for North America, the resolution invites U.S. cities and towns to update their 2030, 2040, and 2050 climate targets and communicate these to the federal government. It also encourages the U.S. Government to act on its endorsement of the CHAMP initiative.

This resolution was adopted during the Conference of Mayors’ 92nd annual meeting, held from 20-23 June in Kansas City. With over 1,400 mayors representing cities of 30,000 or more inhabitants, the Conference of Mayors’ resolution demonstrates U.S. cities’ readiness to support CHAMP. It also highlights their leading contribution to the Paris Agreement’s Global Stocktake process throughout 2023, which paved the way for official local government contributions to UNFCCC.

“These efforts demonstrate the crucial role that ICLEI and the LGMA constituency can play in implementing CHAMP. By ensuring that national local government associations take ownership of the initiative, national governments won’t be left alone in delivering their commitments, nor will the commitments made in Dubai be forgotten,” added Yunus Arikan, ICLEI Director of Global Advocacy and the LGMA focal point. Mr. Arikan also called on national local government associations to encourage new national endorsements for CHAMP.

Pushing forward Town Hall Cops: Connecting local climate action to national and global processes

Charting the roadmap to Belém, the Town Hall COPs initiative aims to amplify local climate perspectives within broader climate processes. This bridging mechanism is recognized by the DST CHAMP resolution. “It encourages cities to convene their Town Hall COPs as an innovative approach to connect national and global processes,” said Mayor Dörner.

A Town Hall COP basically is a COP brought to the local level, bringing administration, experts, local stakeholders and civil society together to assess and discuss climate change, climate mitigation, adaptation and loss & damage in a condensed format.

Similarly, the United States Conference of Mayors calls on cities to support “Town Hall COPs as the next iteration of the local Paris Agreement Stocktakes process and a key mechanism for receiving input, and pursue enhanced subnational engagement on the road to COP29 and COP30 in order to secure a strong Multilevel U.S. Nationally Determined Contribution in 2025.”

Concluding at COP28, the #Stocktake4ClimateEmergency initiative incorporated a critical local perspective into the broader UNFCCC Global Stocktake exercise. Led by ICLEI as the focal point of the LGMA Constituency, this local stocktake pilot involved 26 cities across 18 countries and six continents, demonstrating the power, feasibility, and value of multilevel stakeholder engagement. 

As CHAMP signatories embark on multilevel consultations to ensure the second generation of NDCs are prepared alongside subnational governments, the Town Hall COPs -the iteration of last year’s local stocktake exercise- emerge as a crucial step. They enable cities to contribute their unique and critical perspectives toward achieving the Paris Agreement’s goal of limiting global temperature to 1.5 °C. 

“Through these resolutions adopted by national associations of local governments, they can connect NDCs to Town Hall COPs, ensuring community-level actions and engagements are connected to national and global agendas. This will make NDC3.0 much more effective than previous versions. All of this depends on the awareness and proactive approaches of mayors and other subnational leaders within ICLEI and the LGMA constituency,” said Yunus Arikan.

For all to succeed, bringing CHAMP to life raises the imperative to advocate for even more concerted action at all levels of governance. Here, subnational governments’ role is crucial: Through their calls, commitment and diligence they can build momentum for CHAMP, ensuring its longevity and a steady drumbeat toward 2025 and beyond.