International cooperation and climate change
| Subject: Climate Change, International Cooperation
The Climate Action Committee presents the initial results from the assessment at the local level
On 14 January, the Climate Action Committee of the Catalan Fund for Development Cooperation (FCCD) held its first 2021 meeting, coordinated by the AMB, where the initial results from the assessment of international cooperation actions linked to climate change at the municipal and supramunicipal level were presented.
The event, presided by Elisenda Alamany, coordinator of the Committee, was attended by 18 Catalan municipal councils, 7 of them from the metropolitan area, as well as representatives from the Catalan Agency for Development Cooperation (ACCD), the Barcelona Provincial Council and the Vallès Occidental County Council. During the presentation of the study, Alamany stressed the importance of reflecting on how to approach climate change through decentralised cooperation and the opportunity the study represents to share municipal experiences and gain insight into actions that may be extended to other countries.
After presenting the assessment, the floor was opened to discussion with a view to defining the Climate Action Committee's priority lines of action. Among the ideas put forward, mention must be made of the consensus reached on the need for further training, the theoretical and practical reflection on climate change in international cooperation, the inclusion of climate action as a cross-cutting issue in cooperation, the importance of adaptation actions in those countries most affected by climate change and the key role that the cooperation sector may play in terms of climate change policy coherence.
The participants emphasised the importance of establishing fora for reflecting on and discussing about climate change in international cooperation, a key issue in today's international agenda, yet one still lacking the solid and consensual theoretical basis of other areas of international cooperation, such as education, health or gender perspective.
The assessment on climate change and international cooperation at the local level will be published once the contributions made during the presentation of the preliminary results have been included.