Reflections from Brazil: Multilevel climate action and governance

In this video message presented at Daring Cities 2025, André Corrêa do Lago, COP30 President, emphasizes the role of mayors and subnational governments in shaping the COP30 agenda. Hear from Antonio Da Costa e Silva, Chief International Advisor at the Brazilian Ministry of Cities, and other leaders, as they refer to Brazil’s NDC 3.0, climate federalism, and the CHAMP initiative.

From fragmentation to structure: CHAMP helps scaling climate action across all levels

Held under the framework of the Daring Cities Bonn Dialogues, at the SB62 sessions in June 2025, the 2nd CHAMP UNFCCC Focal Point Dialogue convened CHAMP Endorsing Governments, together with Friends of CHAMP and supporting partners, including the LGMA Constituency.

Building on COP29: What’s next for urban leaders driving climate emergency action

This webinar reviewed the outcomes of COP29 and progress on the CHAMP initiative, featuring insights from the LGMA Constituency on ongoing developments

5 March 2025 | 16:00 CET

Finland joins CHAMP initiative, becoming the 73rd nation to endorse the multilevel climate pledge

Spearheaded by Turku Mayor and ICLEI First Vice President Minna Arve, the initiative aims to enhance cooperation between national, regional, and local governments in Finland and beyond.

Daring Cities 2024 session: "Connecting the dots: Multilevel action from Daring Cities to COP29 and COP30"

This Daring Cities 2024 webinar continues the conversation on the implementation of COP28 outcomes in relation to multilevel action and sustainable urbanization, including progress on the Coalition for High Ambition Multilevel Partnerships (CHAMP), UNFCCC negotiations in Bonn in preparation to COP29 and COP30, and the agenda of the Daring Cities 2024 Bonn Dialogues on 3-5 June.

COP28 Session: “From Commitment to Delivery: Financing Multilevel Action”

Ahead of the second Ministerial Meeting on Urbanization and Climate Change on 5 December, ICLEI and GCoM delved into how global climate finance could translate into local climate action. Along with representatives from the COP28 Presidency, the World Bank, the European Committee of the Regions, and CHAMP endorsers from Germany, the Dominican Republic, and Rwanda, the discussion centered on the clear gap between the actions taken by local and regional governments at the forefront of climate change and the commitments made at national and global levels. According to the participants, this is precisely where CHAMP comes into play and serves as the main reason to endorse the initiative.

COP28 Session: “Operationalizing The Ministerial Meeting: Catalyzing Urban Transformation On The Road to COP30”

Right after the Ministerial, on 6 December, ICLEI and UN-Habitat co-hosted this session to reflect on the status of negotiations and to discuss the Ministerial’s outcomes, where Ministers of housing, urban development, and environment, in addition to local leaders and other experts, committed to endorsed the CHAMP initiative.

COP28 Session: "Bridging Urban Narratives: Amplifying City Voices Via SURGe, CHAMP, and Beyond"

Co-hosted by ICLEI and UN-Habitat on 10 December, this session focused on two COP initiatives: COP27’s SURGe, developed in collaboration with UN-Habitat and facilitated by ICLEI, and COP28’s CHAMP. The discussion reflected on multilevel action integration in the global climate agenda, emphasizing insights from the first and second Ministerial Meetings and the commitments outlined in the CHAMP initiative.

UN-Habitat report reveals opportunity to enhance the urban content of NDCs

An analysis into the CHAMP-endorsing countries revealed that based on the NDC Urban content, 2/3 of countries display low or moderate urban content in their NDCs. Therefore, it leaves room to integrate more urban priorities (i.e. mitigation and adaptation measures tailored to urban areas) in the next NDC revision cycle in 2025 at COP30 in Belém in Brazil.

The report highlights opportunities to enhance climate action and reflects on the countries that have the biggest potential to work towards a stronger integration of urban content in their NDCs. It also explains how countries can reap co-benefits of sustainable urban development, introduce effective local adaptation measures, and reduce emissions by stronger collaboration with local governments to integrate urban priorities into national climate plans.