On Wednesday, 9 December, the European Committee of the Regions (CoR) adopted an opinion on The impact of climate change on regions: an assessment of the European Green Deal upon referral by the European Council Presidency during its 141st plenary session. The opinion was supported and contributed to by ICLEI, and references the Mannheim Message and process that was set in motion at ICLEI’s European Sustainable Cities & Towns conference this year (Mannheim2020).

In the opinion, shared with all EU institutions, CoR members call for “Designing the implementation of the Green Deal across levels as a key instrument for green recovery towards a climate-neutral Europe”.

CoR members – calling upon the European Commission and EU Member States to enable local and regional authorities to act as key partners in the process towards EU climate neutrality – asked for support for local and regional commitments to developing Local Green Deals and Climate Pacts with citizens and local stakeholders. The opinion furthermore recognises multi-level governance as a critically important process for linking the Green Deal objectives with effective green recovery, and underlines the importance of renewed 2030 EU climate targets.

Ahead of an EU summit this week, which aims to reach an agreement on upgrading the EU's 2030 GHG emissions target, members also adopted an opinion on “From Farm to Fork – the local and regional dimension.” A recent debate on how to make Farm to Fork strategies work – which was facilitated by ICLEI with local and EU representatives, CoR members as well as the FAO – can be re-watched here.

All adopted opinions are sent to all EU institutions, as part of the European legislative process, through which the European Commission (and other EU institutions) consults the CoR on policy areas that directly affect local and regional authorities.

Read more about ICLEI’s support for higher EU climate targets for 2030 and the Coalition for Higher Ambition here.