Three weeks ahead UN's Climate Change Conference in
Katowice, the European Committee of the Regions
reiterates the need for local and regional
governments to have a formal role in the new global
climate governance and defends an obligation for
the Parties of the Paris agreement to involve cites
and regions in their greenhouse gas emission
reduction plans
The main topics of the ENVE commission meeting
today included COP24, the 8th Environment Action
Programme, water reuse, Europe's space programme
and the Coal Regions in Transition initiative. The
City of Ghent has been awarded the Transformative
Action Award 2018 with a sustainable food chain
project.
The 24th Session of the Conference
of the Parties to the United Nations Framework
Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)
will take place in Katowice next 3-14 December. As time
pressures to get the Paris agreement implementation
rulebook into motion, members of the commission for
Environment, Climate Change and Energy (ENVE) have
agreed to determinedly defend a stronger and formal
role for local and regional governments in the
implementation of the Paris agreement.
During a debate about COP24, Andrew Cooper (UK/EA), rapporteur of the opinion on
Climate Governance after 2020
,
adopted in July 2018
,
said: "We need to step up and raise our levels of
ambition if we want to reverse global warming. I
therefore welcome the European Parliament's new target
of reducing emissions by 55% by 2030". Kirklees Councillor added: "We reiterate our
call for Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) to
include an aggregation of Regionally and Locally
Determined Contributions (RLDCs) so to formally
acknowledge and count the commitments and achievements
of sub-national governments in reducing GHG emissions".
EU's Assembly of local and regional leaders propose
that national inventory reports within the Paris
agreement transparency framework include a section on
mitigation actions undertaken at subnational levels as
a way to keep track of the progress towards achieving
both NDCs and RLDCs.
The European Committee of the Regions will attend COP24
with a delegation of members representing all political
groups and led by Vice-PresidentMarkku Markkula (FI/EPP) and ENVE Chair Cor Lamers (NL/EPP).

Transformative Action Award 2018 to the City of
Ghent
. The Flemish city has been rewarded for developing a
sustainable food chain project
which is decreasing food waste, making food supply
chains shorter and food procurement more sustainable.
"We want our food system to be local, resilient and
fair. The challenge is huge and requires commitment of
many stakeholders and change at many levels. We believe
our approach is successful and we will work hard to
further scale this up in Ghent"
said Tine Heyse, Deputy Mayor of Ghent.
Members gave their support to Cor Lamers' draft
opinion
Towards an 8th Environment Action Programme
(EAP)
. "We need the 8th EAP to be adopted timely so to avoid
a policy gap. We must focus on implementation,
fostering strategic and integrated place-based
approaches that ensure a 'healthy living for all', said
the ENVE chair and Mayor of Schiedam.
The ENVE commission adopted the draft opinion on the
Proposal for a Regulation on minimum
requirements for water reuse
. Rapporteur Oldřich Vlasák (CZ/ECR) said: "Effective water
management is of particular importance as one third of
the EU territory is affected by water stress. I
therefore encourage the European Commission to enlarge
the scope of the regulation from agriculture irrigation
to include urban green spaces such as parks,
gardens,sport fields and streets cleaning".
Members backed Andres Jaadla (EE/ALDE)
and his draft opinion on
The space programme of the Union and the
European Union Agency for the Space Programme
. "The EU's space programme must be strongly connected
with key priority policies such as energy, climate
change and the environment and develop space hubs and
inter-regional clusters to increase the competitiveness
of the space industry and foster regional development."
Contact:
David Crous |
david.crous@cor.europa.eu
| +32 (0) 470 88 10 37