COP-15 Global decision-making on the way forward Illustration by Rob Gonsalves

What is the COP? The COP is the Conference of the Parties. This is the annual meeting of the nations that are signatory to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). This year’s COP – Cop-15 – will take place in Copenhagen, Denmark on 7-18 December.

Why is COP-15 important? COP-15 is planned to produce the Copenhagen Agreement which will be the successor to the Kyoto Protocol, which is set to expire in 2013.

Why is COP-15 important? In addition to the climate negotiators, a total of 12,000 people are expected to attend COP-15 and there will be 100s of side events on a wide variety of topics.

Why is COP-15 not everything? COP-15 will produce an agreement, but there a number of areas that will probably not make it into the agreement:  Firm emissions/mitigation targets  Details on funding mechanisms  Detail on the types of adaptation measures that should be undertaken

Opportunities at COP-15 Still there are significant opportunities for ACCCRN partners at COP-15. These include:  Profiling the role of cities and local actors in addressing climate change.  Outlining the challenges cities face.  Strengthening relationships with the climate negotiators and other climate advocates.  Outreach to donors around potential financing support.

Preparations for the COP ACCCRN partners have already been active in outreach and advocacy efforts to promote the role of cities in addressing climate change:  ISET and the Rockefeller Foundation have tracked developments in past COP meetings.  ICLEI co-sponsored Local government Climate Summit in Copenhagen in June.  ProVention has developed a paper on local adaptation submitted as a reference document to the UNFCCC.

ACCCRN participation at the COP Four primary opportunities to profile work of ACCCRN cities:  Side events  ICLEI Climate Lounge  Distribution of information materials about ACCCRN  Informal advocacy

Related side events at COP-15 Proposed side event Title ACCCRN side event ‘Cities and Resilience – Experience from the Asian Cities Climate Change Resilience Network’ ICLEI side event The Local Governments Climate Change Roadmap GEAG side event ‘Climate Vulnerabilities and Adaptation Experiences: Emerging urban and rural insights from India and Nepal’ UN/ISDR side event ‘Implementing adaptation: Reducing risk in schools, hospitals, cities’

Other important events at COP-15  ICLEI Climate Lounge  Development and Adaptation Days  Nairobi Work Programme  Mayor’s Climate Conference  Ad hoc talks

Materials to distribute at COP-15 ISET will lead in developing a set of documents for COP that bring together:  Case descriptions from ACCCRN cities  An outline of the shared learning dialogues approach  Preliminary ideas on robust climate resilience solutions

Follow-up from COP-15 UNFCCC  The UNFCCC bodies will continue working to detail implementation plans for the Copenhagen Agreement. ACCCRN  As more detail emerges around the donor and financing context, ACCCRN cities and partners will also progress toward more concrete planning on proposals to implements specific resilience initiatives.

Another opportunity before COP-15 ACCCRN will host a dialogue with climate negotiators from India, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, and the Philippines February in Bangkok as part of a pre-COP UNFCCC meeting there. Goal: to enable country-specific discussions between city and national climate negotiators on the roles, capacities, and challenges of cities and local actors to contribute toward addressing climate change.

ACCCRN partner discussion Small group work Questions 1)Where do you see strategic opportunities to advance the ACCCRN agenda at COP-15? 2)What are the key messages that we need to bring forward?