Arvamuse teabeleht 

THE EUROPEAN COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS:



- highlights the fact that climate change is a global problem, but that in order to address it in the most effective way possible a multi-level, multi-stakeholder governance approach is needed. In light of this, the Committee calls on the European Commission to recommend, including under the UNFCCC, that the role of local and regional governments be recognised and enhanced with a view to achieving the objectives of the Paris Agreement more effectively;

- given the scant ambition displayed by some States in the current international context, considers the role of local and regional bodies to be essential in involving the general public and raising awareness of climate change issues, in attracting investments and in implementing specific projects. In this regard, calls on the Commission to strengthen the Covenant of Mayors initiative and to promote the Global Covenant of Mayors, providing financial and technical assistance, especially in countries where national ambition is lacking;

- proposes, with regard to the discussions on the new post 2020 EU Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF), that climate change and sustainability issues become a dominant cross-cutting trend across all funding programmes, and that minimum allocation targets for climate be included both for the MFF as a whole and for the main funding programmes;

- suggests that ex ante impact assessments of EU legislative proposals be accompanied by a climate impact assessment and an assessment of how they will contribute to the Paris Agreement objectives;

- stresses that sometimes the rules on state aid and/or European accounting rules for public bodies can make environment and climate investments more difficult; therefore asks the Commission to check whether there is room for making these investments more appealing in accounting terms;

- suggests to establish an instrument to improve the capacity of regions and cities to navigate between the various existing initiatives, access climate financing and obtain appropriate technical support; offers its support to the Commission in drawing up a manual that will offer a map of European and international funding opportunities specifically for local and regional authorities.