News and Events

Launch of a New UNDP Program to Mitigate Climate Change
17.11.2008

On 29-30 October, 2008 in St. Malo, France took place the World Summit of the Regions entitled “Climate Change: Regions in Action”. More than 600 delegates from 60 countries and 110 regions world-wide took part in the event. The delegates were welcomed by Mrs. Marie Claire Daveu, Director of the Cabinet, French Ministry of Ecology, Energy, Sustainable Development and Spatial Planning: Mrs. Danuta Hubner, European Commissioner of Regional Policy, Mrs. Cecile Molinier, Director of UNDP for Europe, Mrs. Monique Barbut, President of the Global Environmental Facility (GEF) and Mr. Jean Jouzel, Vice-President of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The major focus of the presentations and the specific thematic sessions of the Summit was on how local and regional authorities address climate change issues in their plans, policies and projects.

In the spirit of the UNDP 2007–2008 Human Development Report on Climate Change , the St. Malo Summit was also the platform for the official launch of a new partnership initiative between United Nations (UNDP and UNEP) and regions both from industrialized countries and emerging and developing countries. Through this new initiative entitled Towards Carbon Neutral and Climate Change Resilient Territories, UNDP, which has already mobilized 50 million USD and will be responsible for the overall management of the program, will make available methodologies, expertise from the UN, regions and the private sector to reinforce the capacities of regions to design, develop and implement mitigation and adaptation climate change strategies and action plans.

Both UNDP in its 2008-2011 Climate Change Strategy and UNEP acknowledge the importance of supporting each of the decision-making levels involved in climate change management: international, national, regional and municipal. The St. Malo Summit emphasized on the important role played by regional governments in climate mitigation and adaptation initiatives and, in essence, demonstrated that international donor organizations already “abandon” the current approach in climate change management, which favors the development of a wide array of small, dispersed and fragmented projects, in favor of a comprehensive, integrated local planning framework. The new UN climate program will assist 50 regions to prepare and implement Integrated Territorial Climate Plans (ITCP) and identify and formulate regions-pertinent climate adaptation and mitigation projects.

The World Summit of the Regions was co-organized by the French Region of Brittany, the Conference of Peripheral Maritime Regions of Europe (CPMR) and the Network of Regional Governments for Sustainable Development (NRG4SD).

NRG4SD was formed by the regional governments that attended the Johannesburg World Summit on Sustainable Development in 2002, to share information and experience about sustainable development policy-making at the regional (sub-national) level of governance. They agreed the Gauteng Declaration which is the founding document of the Network. The Network promotes understanding, collaboration and partnerships in sustainable development and seeks greater international recognition of the importance of the contribution which regions make to sustainable development.
Currently the Network has 32 members, 28 Regions and 4 associations of Regions or networks from the five continents. It enables its members to:
• Share information and experience concerning Sustainable Development policies
• Identify and define best practices between Regional Governments from all over the World
• Make links with regions with common interests and experience, and facilitate bilateral and multilateral partnership agreements
• Further the international recognition of the contribution to sustainable development made by Regional Governments
• Promote Sustainable Development at the regional government level throughout the World
• Identify common issues and priorities for work.
One of the major outputs of the Worl Summit was the St. Malo Declaration of the Regions signed by the members of nrg4SD Network which committed to participate actively and take concrete climate mitigation and adaptation actions in the future international climate change regime highlighted on the Bali Roadmap for the Post-Kyoto phase.