Regions4’s unique internal expertise through its three portfolios has resulted over the last few years in a solid advocacy and knowledge partnership across its member network and the UN system.

In light of it, the first main priority for its climate program, for 2022, will be for its regional members to provide their inputs towards the new adaptation goal within UNFCCC negotiations. Members will be supported by the Secretariat to seize those opportunities and commitments launched at COP26 especially the financial ones. Regions4 will continue presenting best pratices, outreaching to new regions and reporting on progress to the Race to Resilience campaign, as well as, assessing the role of regions within the loss and damage agenda. Regions4 will endeavour to strengthen the visibility and work of African regions in the lead to COP27 taking place in Egypt.

The second priority for Regions4, will be to reinforce the work of the community of practice of RegionsAdapt, so as to allow for more peer to peer exchanges with regions on key adaptation challenges, by organizing a set of webinars on topics such as the mainstreaming of adaptation with other sectors, like biodiversity, and measuring the impact of adaptation actions, that will come and inform the new adaptation goal. In this, Regions4 will collaborate with new partners under the MAIA and EU Horizon collaboration frameworks we are currently finalizing.  

The Regions4 Biodiversity unit will shortly launch the Regions4 Case Study Database website to help its regional members share common challenges and connect with each other. This Database will be a key element of RegionsWithNature, a new initiative which will be launched in partnership with ICLEI and IUCN. 

Regions4 will be present at the SBSTTA 24, SBI-3 and WG2020-3 consultative meetings in Geneva taking place in March 2022.  This will be followed by the AC SNG convened in April aimed to outline various opportunities for its members and a webinar on “Capacity building and technical and scientific cooperation for the post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework” which will be led and organized online by the Regions4 Biodiversity Learning Platform (R4BLP) in June this year.  However, the most relevant event of 2022 regarding biodiversity will be the CBD Conference of the Parties (COP15) that will be hosted during the summer months of 2022. The Edinburgh Declaration, Regions4 has been supporting for a while, should be agreed at this conference in Kunming, China. This event will serve to officially launch the RegionsWithNature platform.

Furthermore, the 7^th Global Biodiversity Summit of Local and Subnational Governments will also take place alongside CBD COP15. Finally, a workshop on “Interlinkages between climate change, biodiversity and sustainable development” will take place in September this year. We plan to close this year with a Webinar on “Resource mobilization and financial mechanisms for subnational governments“.  

On the part of the SDGs, in 2022, Regions4 will continue to support regional governments in accelerating the achievement of the 2030 Agenda while advocating for greater recognition of the key role played by regional governments in reaching the Global Goals and localising the SDGs.

As Organizing Partner of the Local Authorities Major Group, Regions4 will represent regions voice in UN ECOSOC, including the preparatory processes leading to the 2022 UN High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development. The series “RegionsVoice in UN reporting” of the Community of Practice Regions4SDGs will keep analyzing the contributions of regions to the 2030 Agenda through the Voluntary Subnational Reviews (VSRs). New sessions will explore experiences on accountability and transparency, citizens engagement and participatory mechanisms, horizontal coordination, and multi-stakeholder platforms by discussing practical tools and sharing knowledge and lessons for policy efficiency and coherence. The lessons learnt from our community will serve to support further contributions of regional governments to the HLPF and the work of the Global Taskforce of Local and Regional Governments.