Regional governments of the world will attend COP27 to claim their key role in responding to the climate and biodiversity loss crises

• About thirty subnational governments members of Regions4 will be present in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, at a summit that will be highly action-oriented.

• They will defend before the main world leaders that they are the ones who are implementing the vast majority of climate adaptation and mitigation actions, so they claim more collaboration and support to influence international decisions.

• One of the main activities will be the presentation of the RegionsAdapt 2021 – 2022 Progress Report, the global initiative that facilitates climate action on adaptation for regional governments. RegionsAdapt supports more than 70 regions on five continents impacting around 300 million people.

November 4th, 2022.

The United Nations Climate Change Conference 2022 (COP27), which will take place from November 6 to 18 in Sharm-El-Sheikh (Egypt), will bring together more than 200 countries and thousands of other national and sub-national actors. It will be a very action-oriented summit, with a focus on resilience and adaptation. The discussion on loss and damage is also on the main agenda, as well as the increase in climate finance (the two key issues of this COP27), which is becoming widespread due to the current pace of the emergency and its daily impacts around the world. African regions will be particularly represented at this COP, which is based in Africa.

Multilevel action is key to curbing climate change. The preamble to the Paris Agreement already recognizes that all levels of government are fundamental to ensuring a future below 1.5°C. For this reason, about thirty subnational governments will be present in Egypt, where they will represent the voice of the regions, share solutions, and report on their actions in favor of adaptation and resilience, notably the international campaign Race to Resilience.

This is a delegation from Regions4, a pioneering international network that seeks to empower and position regional governments as the agents that can most directly act against the challenge posed by climate change and biodiversity loss. As a matter of fact, it is the regions that lead up to 75% of mitigation measures and up to 90% of adaptation measures to climate change, according to the European Committee of the Regions.

Along with Regions4 Secretary General, Natalia Uribe, and Global Advocacy and Climate Programs Manager, Heloise Chicou, there will be representatives from 26 regional governments: Rabat Salé Kénitra (Morocco, which hosted the Regions4 pre-COP27 meeting in June), Auvergne Rhone Alpes (France), Lombardy (Italy), Navarra, Catalonia and the Basque Country (Spain), Flanders (Belgium), Scotland and Wales (United Kingdom), Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Paraná and Minas Gerais (Brazil), CONGOPE-Ecuador, Baja California, Jalisco, Yucatan and Guanajuato (Mexico), Louga and Gossas (Senegal), Cross River State (Nigeria), Kwazulu (South Africa), Kenya – Council of Governors, Quebec (Canada), South Australia (Australia) and the Organization of United Regions Oru-Fogar.

Regions4, an observer organization accredited to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), aims at raising the bar for multi-level governance and the progress of regional governments towards resilience. In this line, Regions4 will participate and organize various events during COP27. In addition to sharing innovative solutions that have shown results and can be scaled, Regions4 will showcase how its flagship initiative, RegionsAdapt, can support regional governments in scaling up their adaptation and resilience ambitions.

Thematic Days

On November 10, the day on which resilience will be discussed at COP, Regions4 organizes its main event open to the media: ‘A spotlight on states and regions contributions to the Global Stocktake – getting it done’. The main objective is to find solutions to overcome the institutional barriers that prevent regional actors from being recognized as key drivers for the achievement of the Global Goal on Adaptation and the Global Stocktake. In addition, it will focus on the importance of including regional governments in the decision-making, implementation, and monitoring of climate resilience and adaptation strategies.

In this event Regions4 will present the ‘Declaration of regional governments towards COP27‘, arising from the preparatory event of the regions for COP27 that was held in June in Rabat, Morocco. After the contributions received and the signature by over 20 regions of the world, the declaration will be taken to the world summit.

Events that Regions4 will organize at the Blue Zone of Sharm El-Sheikh International Convention Center (SHICC):

• Resilience day:  A spotlight on states and regions’ contributions to the Global Stocktake –  ‘getting it done’

Organizers: Regions4, Under2 Coalition,  Government of Scotland

Date: Thursday 10th November

Time: 13.30 – 14.45 h – Egypt Standard Time (UTC+02:00).

Place: Multi-level action pavilion (blue zone COP27 venue) – hybrid event

• Adaptation Innovation Lab

Organizers: Regions4, Climate-Kic, Government of Scotland

Date: Saturday 12nd November

Time: 16.30 – 17.30 h – Egypt Standard Time (UTC+02:00).

Place: Multi-level action pavilion (blue zone COP27 venue), hybrid event

• Regions4 reception/networking event

Organizers: Regions4, with the support of the government of Scotland

Date: Saturday 12th of November

Time: 18:00-19:30 h – Egypt Standard Time (UTC+02:00).

Place:  Multi-level action pavilion (blue zone COP27 venue) – in-person reception.

• Strengthening the capacity to increase resilience to climate change in West Africa (official side event)

Organizers: Regions4, Basque Center for Climate Change (BC3), Confederación
Española de Organizaciones Empresariales (CEOE)

Date: Monday 14th November

Time: 16.45 – 18.15 h – Egypt Standard Time (UTC+02:00).

Place:  Room 3 (blue zone COP27 venue), hybrid event

• Biodiversity day: Hearing the voice of subnational governments: learning from the Edinburgh Declaration for biodiversity

Organizers: Regions4, Edinburg Declaration partners, Government of Scotland

Date: Wednesday 16th November

Time: 12.00 – 13.00 h – Egypt Standard Time (UTC+02:00).

Place:  Multi-level action pavilion (blue zone COP27 venue), hybrid event

For further information, please consult our dedicated webpage here:

The voice of the regions

Regions4, which brings together more than 40 regional governments from about twenty countries on four continents, reaching nearly 200 others, is the voice of regions in UN negotiations, European Union initiatives, and discussions in the fields of climate change, biodiversity, and sustainable development. It was born in 2002 during the World Summit in Johannesburg as the Network of Regional Governments for Sustainable Development (nrg4SD) and, in 2019, became Regions4. On its way to COP27 in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, it will be followed by a delegation of 26 regional governments from all over the world.

For further information, interviews or to receive information from Regions4 during COP27, please contact:

Alba Díaz de Sarralde | Media Advisor | Gabineteseis

adiazdesarralde@gabineteseis.es / M. +34 659 59 35 62