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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 24^th 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