Event Reports
Which role can cities play in environmental and climate policy in the future? This question was the centre of attention during the CB27 event in Belo Horizonte from November 12th to 14th, 2014.
Representatives of the partner organisations of the event opened the National Conference on Cities and Climate Change and included ICLEI with Jussara Lima Carvalho, the city of Belo Horizonte with mayor Márcio Lacerda, and Deputy Mayor and head of the city’s environmental department Delio Malheiros, the city of Rio de Janeiro with the head of the city’s environmental department Carlos Alberto Muniz, and the forum CB27. The cities were supported by representatives of the Brazilian government, such as Karen Silverwood-Cope from the Environment Agency and Everton Lucero, head of the Climate Division and Chief Negotiator of climate issues of Brazil's Foreign Ministry. International organisations were represented by ambassador Ana Paula Zacarias, chairman of the European Delegation in Brazil, Kathrin Zeller of the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, Catherine Barber of the British Embassy, and Alain Grimard of UN Habitat.
Consequently, questions about climate change took centre stage. Today, cities account for about 70 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions and are thus key players with regards to the formulation and implementation of emission reduction strategies. The local governments are not merely polluters. Quite the contrary, they provide opportunities to tackle climate change. In line with the subsidiarity principle, solutions should be found primarily in those areas where problems arise. Hence, issues such as waste management or public transport were the main topics of various lectures and workshops. As a basis for decision-making and management processes within the municipalities, the creation of greenhouse gas inventories for each of the member cities was discussed. The emission statistics are designed to identify the main emitters and initiate appropriate measures.
The Fifth National Conference of CB27 started on November 13th. During the opening Carlos Alberto Muniz highlighted the positive collaboration of the member cities irrespective of their party affiliation. At the same time he stressed that the heads of the environmental departments were important actors within their respective parties who strengthened the topic of environmental and climate policy, which had barely been visible in the agenda of most parties so far. Furthermore, Florian Geyer presented the work of GIZ (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit) in Brazil and invited the representatives of the CB27 to enter a reinforced dialogue.
Greenhouse gas inventories also took centre stage within the CB27. On that occasion, the Ministry of Environment presented its National Fund for Climate Change and explained opportunities to apply for funding. The environmental department heads described the difficulties they had faced in previous application processes and demanded information regarding the rejections of their applications in recent years in order to be able to adapt the necessary documents accordingly.
Minister Everton Lucero emphasised the importance of the CB27 forum as a communication channel of the cities with the Brazilian government. The dialogue with the 27 state capitals was essential as they had to eventually implement the commitments on the ground that Brazil agreed to in international negotiations. A prerequisite to the representation of the country’s position was the awareness of the potentials and needs of its cities, according to Lucero. Dialogue was thus becoming increasingly important as negotiations moved away from the imposition of fixed quotas to voluntary commitments that the individual countries bring to the table themselves as part of their contributions to the negotiations, so the minister. He also stressed that Brazil could not bear the same responsibility as industrialised countries in the realm of historic GHG emissions but aimed to be part of the solution. During the afternoon the member cities of the CB27 presented project proposals for the implementation of greenhouse gas inventories other emission reduction strategies.
On the last day of the conference, elections concerning the management of the forum took place. Delio Malheiros, coordinator of the network, and Nelson Moreira Franco, Managing Director, were confirmed for two more years in office.
For the first time, greenhouse gas emissions caused by the event were determined and subsequently neutralised.
The event ended with an excursion to the city of Belo Horizonte’s successful projects in terms of environmental and climate policies, including the express buses to improve public transport that exist since June.
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