The French government recently announced the proposal to introduce regional Conference of Parties (COPs – as an analogy to the COP27, the committee created after signing the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change). This is something Vincent Chauvet, Mayor of Autun, France, called for back in 2021 for local and regional authorities to start organizing local and regional COPs in their communities to ensure citizens get ownership of the Green Deal and the battle against Climate Change. He therefore calls on the French government to support his proposal.

“Local authorities should have a real say in the green transition. With regional COPs, they are not in charge, but it remains important to highlight that the conferences should be at the regional level as it’s the right level to hold the debate and to implement and collaborate on initiatives” argues Chauvet,

This would ensure citizens and businesses get ownership of the green deal and the battle against climate change, but also allow to gather field information that could be trickled up to the national and international level, providing concrete local know how and best practices. All this could accelerate the green transition and help reaching the Paris Agreement goals.

Chauvet: “The EU has set itself to be a leader in COP negotiations and must thus deliver impactful actions towards its target, which implies co-creation and cooperation with local and regional authorities. In this sense, it calls on UNFCCC to cooperate with the CoR to further promote the frontrunner experience if local and regional COPs”.

France recently announced that they’re looking into regional COPs as a mean to territorialize the green transition. An official announcement should come 17 July. Vincent Chauvet has been arguing for greater involvement of local and regional authorities and regional COPs at COP26 and COP27 as member of the European Committee of the Regions delegation.