Seizing the moment: Local action to address biodiversity loss and climate change

*This blog was written by Barbara Riedemann and Christian Offermanns, both from the ICLEI World Secretariat.

Building on the unprecedented COP28’s multilevel action momentum and with the upcoming COP16 and COP29 by year-end, cities and regions have an actual window of opportunity to amplify their voices in the global climate discussions. At the ICLEI World Congress 2024 plenary, “From Global to Local to Global: Shaping the Future of Sustainability,” mayors and climate leaders emphasized that now is the time for local and regional governments to push for unified, cross-government action to achieve the urgently needed transformations toward a sustainable world.

World leaders will convene at two major United Nations conferences this year to address biodiversity loss and climate change. From 25 to 27 October, the 16th Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD COP16) will take place in Cali, Colombia. Here, cities and regions will gather at the 8th Summit for Subnational Governments and Cities, an official parallel event to COP16 organized by ICLEI and the City of Cali.

Just two weeks later, the 29th Climate Change Conference (UNFCCC COP29) will start in Baku, Azerbaijan, from 11 to 22 November.

Both COPs will assess progress and discuss priorities for two critical milestones. COP16 will review the implementation of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, which outlines a pathway to achieve the global vision of living in harmony with nature by 2050, including goals to curb biodiversity loss by 2030. On the other hand, COP29 will focus on the Paris Agreement and its aim to limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.

These so-called “Rio Conventions” — which additionally include the Convention to Combat Desertification — emerged from the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. At this Summit, the UN recognized that climate change, desertification, and biodiversity loss are heavily interlinked and pose existential challenges to humanity.

“The 1992 Summit was the birthplace of ICLEI’s efforts, emphasizing that global sustainability can only be achieved through sustainable urbanization and multilevel action, where local and regional governments must have a voice in global decisions,” says Yunus Arikan, ICLEI Director of Global Advocacy. “Thirty-two years later, this message remains just as valid,” he adds.

Last year, COP28 in Dubai was a decisive moment for cities and regions, with its outcomes urging for multilevel action. This is particularly reflected in paragraph 161 of the COP28 Global Stocktake decision that urges Parties to engage in inclusive, multilevel, gender-responsive cooperative action, as well as in other relevant paragraphs of the UAE Consensus, providing direction for the next round of Nationally determined contributions (NDCs) due in 2025 at COP30. Moreover, this multilevel action spirit is the core of the Coalition for High Ambition Multilevel Partnerships (CHAMP) initiative, launched by the COP28 Presidency. Seventy-two countries have endorsed CHAMP, committing to enhance cooperation with their subnational governments to collectively pursue efforts on NDCs’ planning, financing and implementation.

“Many countries rely on the implementation efforts by cities, states, and regions to meet the objectives set in their NDCs. This underscores the importance of strengthening alignment between national planning processes and those at subnational levels. Thanks to many years of work undertaken by the Local Governments and Municipal Authorities Constituency, with ICLEI as its focal point, there has been significant progress in fostering this alignment,” says Razan Al Mubarak, COP28 High-Level Champion and President of the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

“Local governments are not just implementers but also active policymakers and catalysts of change,” adds Mohamed Sefiani, Mayor of Chefchaouen, Morocco, and ICLEI Vice President, who calls on local and regional governments to build upon the unprecedented COP28’s multilevel action momentum, primarily through the CHAMP initiative and the profound interplay between global agendas in the lead up to Biodiversity COP16 and UNFCCC COP29 and COP30. 

Integrating biodiversity into local climate action

Ahead of Biodiversity COP16, Razan Al Mubarak calls on local and regional governments to integrate nature into urban planning, urging urban leaders to engage in multilevel climate action, align strategies with the 2030 Climate Solution for a zero carbon and resilient world, and collaborate with partners to track progress and ensure that climate strategies support biodiversity goals.

“Nature-based solutions are pivotal, demonstrating how urban leaders contribute to NDC targets for both adaptation and mitigation. Cities and regions must initiate a task force dedicated to an urban nature-positive call to action, leveraging the three Rio Conventions to drive progress toward a net-zero, nature-positive world by 2030,” says Ms. Al Mubarak. 

She recalls the Nature Positive Cities and the Urban Nature programs unveiled at COP28’s first Local Climate Action Summit. These initiatives forge a vital connection between nature, climate, and urban agendas, spotlighting the exceptional leadership from local and subnational actors under the Race to Resilience and Race to Zero.

“I come from an island in the Pacific called Siargao Islands, which experiences four to six typhoons yearly. Unfortunately, my country, the Philippines, is now ranked number one globally for natural disaster impacts,” says Alfredo Coro II, Mayor of Del Carmen, Philippines, and ICLEI Global Executive Committee Member.

Mayor Coro emphasizes the need for local governments to look beyond in-country borders for inspiration and biodiversity solutions. “Local actions we might do in our corner of the world have a global impact on climate conditions,” he says. That’s why he raises a call to action to amplify local government’s voices for new governance and bureaucracy scenarios, allowing their unique needs to be supported with appropriate expertise, technology, including indigenous knowledge, and funding.

Securing finance for local climate transformations

As a practical case, Mauricio Zunino, Mayor of Montevideo, Uruguay, describes the longest drought recorded in the country over the past three years, which in 2023 left the city nearly dry, forcing city authorities to add salty water to the supply. Since then, the city has promoted Montevideo Más Verde, a strategy centered on cross-sectoral climate action in water supply, transport, housing, education, and more. It focuses on responsible resource use, smart service organization, social inclusion, and biodiversity conservation. Despite coordination between the city and the national government, Mayor Zunino emphasizes, “It is imperative to advance global coordination by establishing stable policies that ensure global funding sources for the necessary local transformations.”

Looking ahead to COP29 in November, especially with it being announced as the ‘finance highway,’ Maimunah Mohd Sharif, Special Advisor to COP29 Presidency, says that this COP will focus on the “how” of what was established at COP28. “We must ensure that the new Quantified Goal on climate finance reflects the needs of developing countries. Much of the Global South is already facing sovereign debt challenges, and more grant-based and non-debt instruments are needed,” she says, calling for concerted efforts between cities and regions towards streamlining and harmonizing existing climate metrics and climate accounting systems.

“If we don’t keep up the pressure, then we are at risk of losing the political space cities and regions gained at COP28,” warns Champa Patel, from the Under2 Coalition and Climate Group Executive Director of Governments and Policy. Ms. Patel highlights the UNEP report showing that 80% of climate action happens locally. Still, just a fraction of international climate financing flows to states, regions, and cities. She refers to the ongoing discussions about the reform of multilateral financial institutions, raising the imperative to incentivize multilevel action in every reform and instrument and adding local voices to design new financial instruments to unlock investment in key system transitions. 

Mohamed Sefiani adds: “This is the time to implement multilevel, inclusive, and integrated approaches to shape policies, speed up climate action, and address inequalities. Cities and regions must lead the charge for urgent and interlinked transformations to address climate change and biodiversity loss, ensuring that our local actions resonate globally,” he asserts.

* This blog was written based on the ICLEI World Congress 2024 plenary From global to local to global: Shaping the future of sustainability. Watch the recording here.