Statement of President Dassis on the Nantes Declaration of climate actors

The EESC advocates for civil society and citizens at global, national and subnational levels to be fully involved in the development, review and, above all, implementation of the Paris Agreement. With the general framework agreed at the COP21 in Paris, it is now also the role of non-state actors, including civil society, to work together to implement it. The contribution of non-state actors is an absolute must if the world community is serious enough about the commitments made in Paris last year.

This week in Nantes, France, almost 3,000 representatives of local authorities, associations, trade unions, scientific organisations and citizens, participated in the Climate Chance Summit. This summit served to demonstrate the wide spectrum of climate action worldwide. It culminated with an adoption of a declaration of climate actors « Strengthening concrete action to bridge the gap between current commitments and the objectives of the Paris Agreement”.

The declaration recalls that the aggregation of all nationally determined contributions proposed by National Governments would actually lead us on a +3°C pathway, a dramatic rise of temperature to which our societies would not be able to adapt. It strongly supports the rapid entry into force of the Paris Agreement, stresses the importance of the use of funds mobilized by climate action and calls upon the implementation of mechanisms allowing local and regional governments, civil society and local economic stakeholders in developing countries to access new financing tools.

The EESC fully supports the pledge made by the non-state actors to take their share of responsibility and continue building coalitions gathering all stakeholders involved in key areas in the spirit of a multi-stakeholder and multi-level governance based on transparency, inclusiveness and shared thinking.

The EESC has participated with a delegation of six members to the Climate Chance Summit in Nantes and together with its partners: European Committee of the Regions, the French Committee for Sustainable Development (Committee 21 France - C21F) and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) launched a Coalition on "Multi- level and multi- stakeholder governance for faster, more effective and more inclusive implementation of the Paris Agreement".

I am personally convinced about the importance of this endeavor and only weeks before the next UNFCCC conference of the parties (COP22) in Marrakesh I fully support the declaration of the Nantes Climate Chance Summit and urge the COP22 Parties to hear the voice of the non-state actors, including civil society. Without them the commitments of the Paris Agreement simply cannot be met.

Georges Dassis, President of the EESC