23 June 2009, Brussels, Belgium

The session ‘Mobilising Local Authorities’ highlighted the urgent need for local climate action and the key role local governments can play at the climate protection themed Green Week 2009 in Brussels, Belgium, on 23- 26 June 2009.

More than 150 participants and experts attended this session which took place in Brussels on 23 June, and the message was resoundingly clear: Local Governments (LGs) must act. The Vice President of the Committee of the Regions (CoR), Mr Michel Delebarre, emphasized that the current negative effects of the financial crisis mirror only a fraction of what will happen when the growing impact of climate change is seen at the local level. Local governments are “in the frontline”, and need to be provided with the resources and capacity from national government to act.

Panelist and Head of the Air and Climate Change Programme, European Environment Agency, Mr Jeff Huntington, emphasized that the impacts of climate change are getting serious. “Action is required now….but there will be no solution to global warming without the involvement of local governments.” Fellow panelist Mr Ron de Graaf, Dutch Environmental Ministry added that, “each city has its own needs due to a local context, but at the same time also a particular potential to make fast action happen. Therefore a bottom-up approach must be stimulated, as top-down decisions would not be effective enough.”

The session cemented the message delivered at the Local Government Climate Change Leadership Summit in Copenhagen, Denmark, held in early June, when local leaders made a call for action, inclusion and recognition of the role of local and regional governments in national climate strategies and plans. It featured a presentation of developments in the Local Government Climate Roadmap, followed by a high-level panel discussion and an intense exchange with the audience.

The session was organized in the context of the LG Action project.

For more information about the Green Week, please visit the conference website.