The “Cities and Regions Talanoa Dialogues “, facilitated by ICLEI, with the support and partnership of the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate & Energy and UN-Habitat, was launched today at the World Urban Forum in Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia).

The initiative builds upon the Bonn - Fiji Commitment of Local and Regional Leaders adopted at COP 23 in November 2017 and will be implemented in collaboration with the UN Climate Change Secretariat and the Fijian Government.

The Talanoa Dialogue is viewed as a major global push to bring more stakeholder engagement on board towards achieving the 1.5 - degree target in the 2015 Paris Agreement.

The process was launched by the COP23 Presidency of Fiji and is designed to take stock of and strengthen national climate plans, commonly referred to as Nationally Determined Contributions, or NDCs.

Currently, only a third of NDCs are on track for implementation and, even if they were fully implemented, recent estimates by UN Environment project a global warming of over 3°C by the end of the century. Urban communities contribute up to 70 percent of energy - related global greenhouse gas emissions and they are among the most vulnerable hotspots for climate change impacts.

Current commitments by local and regional governments have the potential to reduce emissions by 5-15 gigatons by 2020 to 2030.

However, only around 60 percent of countries have some sort of urban perspective in their national plans, according to UN Habitat figures.

For more information about the Talanoa Dialogue, click here.