CHAMP Resources for cities and regions
Brought to you by the Global Covenants of Mayors (GCoM) for climate and energy
Cities are on the front lines of our rapidly changing climate and first-hand witnesses to its devastating impacts. Faced with this growing urgency, cities are also where some of the biggest opportunities are to fill this gap for climate action, developing innovative and pragmatic solutions to reduce emissions and mitigate the impacts of climate change. For this reason, it is essential for cities to play a major role in the global fight against climate change and for national governments to collaborate with local leaders, empower their efforts, and provide funding for their initiatives.
What is CHAMP?
CHAMP – the Coalition for High Ambition Multilevel Partnerships – was launched by the COP28 Presidency in Dubai to accelerate climate action globally by supporting initiatives at the subnational level.
The overall objectives of CHAMP are to limit global temperature increase to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels, and increase climate adaptation and resilience by supporting climate action at the local level.
To date, 72 national governments have joined CHAMP, committing to working with their subnational governments (cities, towns, states and regions) when developing and implementing climate strategies nationally.
Specifically, these countries have committed to consulting and collaborating with their subnational governments when preparing their next round of climate pledges (Nationally Determined Contributions, or NDCs), due at COP30 in 2025.
Why should cities and regions care about CHAMP?
- CHAMP is an opportunity for domestic dialogues on how subnational governments can contribute to national climate strategies and action, and achieve more policy coherence and better outcomes.
- These dialogues are an opportunity to advocate for projects at the city, town, regional or state levels that can be implemented, accelerated or scaled with the appropriate support from the national government. In short, including local action plans can help accelerate national ambitions.
- Identifying subnational actions as part of the NDC will also help prioritise them for investment and implementation support from financial institutions and development banks so that cities and regions can have improved access to financial and technical resources dedicated to climate action.
- As a result, new and revised NDCs submitted by CHAMP endorsing countries should include: Specific urban sections, urban areas are identified as priority sectors, identified urban priorities are matched to an action. And subnational governments in CHAMP countries by 2025 should be able to progress, finance and deliver a greater number of more ambitious inclusive climate actions.
- The CHAMP process reinforces the legitimacy of local climate action whilst building trust and accountability between levels of governments as well as knowledge and best practice sharing.
What can cities/regions do?
- Engage with your national government to identify opportunities for consultation and collaboration
- Identify elements of your climate strategy to contribute to national commitments and strategies
- Establish clear asks of your national government
- Communicate publicly about your expectations and possible contributions to the national effort
