COP 30, or the Committee of the Parties, was held in Belém in Brazil in November 2025. Local governments were represented at COP by mayors and local government leaders and their networks who travelled to be present, as well as through the Local Government and Municipal Authorities (LGMA), an official grouping led by ICLEI on behalf of members of the Global Taskforce of Local and Regional Governments, including CLGF.

Climate change and local government

LGMA, coordinated very effectively by ICLEI, has actively led a sustained campaign throughout the year for greater awareness of the role of local government in addressing climate change and in driving the agenda towards a COP for implementation, especially at the local level. 

Overall the outcomes of the COP were generally perceived to be varied with some progress on a range of technical issues; a pledge on adaptation finance ($120bn/year by 2035); creation of a Just Transition Mechanism; agreement of indicators for the Global Goal on Adaptation (GGA); an increased focus on forest protection with initiatives like the Tropical Forests Forever Facility; and mechanisms for carbon markets. One key area where there was no agreement, however, was on fossil fuel phase-out language, with parties agreeing instead on a follow-up process to keep momentum going towards the Paris Agreement.

Multi-level governance

A leaders' Forum was convened in Rio immediately preceding the COP itself. It brought together local leaders and ministers, including CLGF’s Chairperson Mayor Bernard Wagner. The meeting elevated local government’s collaboration with national governments and helped to carry the principles of multi-level governance into the COP. Recognition of the importance of multi-level action is definitely increasing. Cities, states and regions will continue to lead transitioning away from fossil fuels, confronting the realities of climate impacts in their territories. However, it is evident that they need proper support to further scale up their actions.

Cities as implementers

The Mutirão text “Cities and other subnational authorities in multilevel climate action” presents a valuable basis to advance multilevel action and sustainable urbanisation beyond Belém, but as a community, local and regional governments want to go further than this and for their role as implementers to be recognised more strategically as a way of closing the ambition gap.

Practical action on climate change

The movement will continue to work towards this objective and to implement the outcomes of COP30, including feeding into the IPCC Special Report on Cities which will be released in 2027. CLGF looks forward to working with its members to continue to integrate practical action on climate change into its advocacy and project work.

COP31 will be hosted in Türkiye (Turkey) in 2026, specifically in Antalya, with Australia taking on the role of leading the negotiations as President of the talks.