ECLAC presents a document at the World Urban Forum 11th edition

ECLAC together with the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy (GCoM) carried out a pilot project during 2021 to study the climate action plans of three Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) cities, signatories of the GCoM. The pilot project represented a first step towards a more long-term approach, which aims to establish a procedure for analyzing the impact of the plans for LAC cities. Although more and more cities have such plans, the main challenge remains to move to action, so the project focused on the creation of tools and/or methodologies to provide more precise guidelines for the implementation of prioritized mitigation and adaptation measures or actions.

In this sense, the document, product of this pilot project entitled "Tools to accelerate the implementation of climate action plans in Latin America and the Caribbean", which has been presented in several instances, was presented at the World Urban Forum, 11th edition, in the "Urban Library" space.

Estefani Rondón Toro, DDSAH Research Assistant, presented the document, explaining the process of the project, and the product materialized from five (5) tools available in it, as support for decision-making on priority actions for mitigation and adaptation, so that local governments of small, medium and large cities can have replicable methodologies based on the context and reality of their territories.

Next, Marja Edelman, Senior Expert Latin America of the GCoM, commented on the Compact's mission in the region, in its strengthening of support to cities to achieve global climate goals. She also added about the experience and benefits of the pilot project, which allowed to further strengthen this support, generating a very useful product for the progress of the cities in the implementation of their actions.

Based on the presentations by ECLAC and GCoM, a panel discussion was then held to hear external views on how these tools and the pilot process could contribute to accelerate climate action in the cities of the region. In this regard, the panel was joined by Mr. Jaime Pumarejo, Mayor of the city of Barranquilla, Colombia, and Ms. Anelis Marichal, General Director of the National Institute of Territorial Planning and Urbanism (INOTU) of Cuba.

Mr. Jaime Pumarejo added that Latin American cities have a unique biodiversity to carry out initiatives that generate both adaptation and mitigation, and that the project led by ECLAC and GCoM brings clear indicators to preserve this biodiversity. He also commented that the city of Barranquilla is attached to the initiative "BiodiverCiudades", considered in turn in the District Development Plan of Barranquilla 2020-2023 Soy Barranquilla, which seeks to consolidate the city as the first BiodiverCiudad of Colombia through projects that promote the recovery of water bodies, the care of the urban environment and the resilience and sustainability.

Ms. Anelis Marichal added that Cuba, as a small island state, is subject to the effects of climate change, which is why it has been working on mitigation and adaptation actions integrated into the Disaster Risk Management Plan and the State Plan for the implementation of the New Urban Agenda (NAU). Ms. Marichal added that the methodology would facilitate the prioritization of actions by applying qualitative and quantitative analyses that are very necessary for decision-making, as well as for integrating climate action aspects into land-use planning instruments.