Day #2 - 30 November 2010: Briefing with the COP President

Today, local government (LG) representatives met at the daily briefing to prepare the work and agendas of the day.

The main theme of the day was the improvement and better engagement of civil society participation in the UNFCCC process.

COP President Espinosa met with civil society representatives, and reacted to questions posted by Cllr Cathy Oke from Melbourne and Vice-Mayor Ronan Dantec from Nantes.

COP President Espinosa clearly expressed her strong support for the climate work being carried out by cities and local governments worldwide, and is willing to find a permanent platform for dialogue with LGs in the process of the COPs.

Espinosa said: "We need to make this happen together. The Summit of Mayors and the Mexico City Pact is a great and important contribution to the process of COPs. It is clear that LGs have a major role to play in this process. Whatever agreement we are able to achieve here in Cancun, we will need the local implementation. For that reason, I am willing to seek appropriate means for a more active role of LGs in the COPs. This could be done within the Subsidiary Body for Implementation (SBI) and we are examining the possibilities for a Decision under SBI (for that). Also, we are examining the possibility to organise during this COP a special session with the participation of Mayor Ebrard of Mexico City that will highlight the climate work of cities and local governments".

Whilst the COP President expressed her support in that meeting, the Subsidiary Body of Implementation of the UNFCCC discussed civil society participation in plenary meeting. During the plenary, the Local Government and Municipal Authority Constituency Focal Point (ICLEI) made a joint intervention on behalf of five constituencies representing Environmental NGOs, Youth, Trade Unions, Women and Gender and Local Governments. During the intervention, the improvement of the involvement of civil society was requested, and specific support was given to the proposals made from parties such as the USA, EU and Bolivia on these issues.

Also today, the LG delegation started their bilateral meetings. The first meeting took place with the Mexican national delegation. During the meeting, LGs expressed their concerns regarding the reduction of the negotiating text that is reflected in the new proposal of the Chair of the AWG-LCA, which discusses the future of the convention, and where local government references were included previously but not in the newly proposed text here in Cancun.

LGs will continue working towards maintaining the references to LGs in any possible Cancun outcome and beyond.

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Download the pdf of the daily report: Day #2 - 30 November 2010: Briefing with the COP President