Mr Ian Micallef, President of the Council of Europe Congress of Local and Regional Authorities

Speech distributed at the United Nations Climate Change Conference - High level segment

Copenhagen, 18 December 2009

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Excellencies,

The world is looking at Copenhagen and expecting the international community to conclude a strong, fair and global agreement on climate change. It is a historic chance to chart out our common future action on climate – a chance that must be seized by all levels of governance.

The position of the Council of Europe’s Congress, which represents territorial authorities in the Organisation's 47 European member States, is that local and sub-national authorities are
fully-fledged partners in the complex issue of climate change. Their role should be recognised and they should be given a higher profile in the forthcoming agreement.

As elected representatives, we have a major responsibility to prepare our cities and regions for the future. Cities and regions are among the biggest polluters in Europe, but we are also the first to face the consequences of climate change. Indeed, we are part of the solution.

Well aware of the challenges that lie ahead, we have, with a sense of responsibility, taken resolute and ambitious action in our towns, cities, counties and regions, giving equal priority to both mitigation and adaptation.

Local and sub-national authorities are leading by example and motivating their communities in bringing about a fundamental change in the way we organise our daily lives and our consumption patterns.

We are engaged in tackling this challenge in the most innovative way, and we set ourselves more ambitious targets. Indeed, we can assume an even stronger role in combating climate change and in adapting to its consequences, and our contribution has to be taken into account and recognised. In this regard, we welcome the ambitious proposals of the European Union. We are convinced that national governments must take advantage of the competences, capacity, experience and commitment of local authorities.

We call on governments to support local and sub-national governments both politically and financially and technologically. The effective fight against climate change and the effective adaptation are feasible only on the basis of the principle of subsidiarity that is to say with the involvement of all tiers of authority and local communities.

This means that beyond the future agreed objectives, beyond energy use and carbon emissions, we must work for better governance and demand stronger institutional capacities at local and
sub-national levels in the world. This means more competences, more autonomy, more resources, and more structured involvement at the national level.

But for us, it also means more accountability to the citizens, more transparency, more efficiency and innovation, greater citizens’ participation, and more ethical governance.

However, it is nigh on impossible to achieve good governance and proper action at the level of the stakes ahead in a non-democratic framework; it must be the direct result of democracy-building and our efforts to sustain democratic development in Europe and beyond.

We must deliver; we must act all together, with common sense, with conscience of the stakes.
We hope that today will be a historic day, and we are ready to take part in the action.

Include us in the agreement and let’s work all together for the very future of humankind.