On 12 November, at COP30, Australia’s National Pavilion hosted a high-level workshop which showcased how locally-led Town Hall COPs are advancing inclusive, community-driven contributions to national and global climate goals.
Grounded by opening remarks from Philip Yang, COP30 Special Envoy for Urban Solutions, and featuring case studies from Pacific cities and municipalities, the session highlighted multilevel collaboration, Indigenous leadership and intergenerational participation as essential components of NDC 3.0 development. Additionally, it offered lessons for countries seeking to implement CHAMP – which Australia is a signatory to – as well as to integrate diverse voices into Paris Agreement implementation.
Facilitated by Kobie Brand, Interim Regional Director of ICLEI Oceania, and co-hosted by William Chan, Special Advisor to ICLEI Oceania’s Regional Executive Committee and former Sydney City Councillor and James Ladbrook, Renewable Energy Consultant, KPMG Australia and Board Director, UN Youth Australia, this workshop showcased – in the spirit of Mutirão – how subnational leadership is essential for inclusive policy and climate-resilience in the Pacific.
Honourable Ruth Cross Kwansing, Minister for Women, Youth, Sport and Social Affairs for Kiribati, making the point that climate action needs to be “inclusive, locally driven and anchored in the realities of our people,” highlighted the importance of the people of Kiribati having made history by hosting the first Town Hall COP in the Pacific. This Town Hall COP brought together community leaders, national government, local councils, youth, churches, NGOs, and international partners in the traditional maneaba meeting house. At the heart of the discussions was the adoption of the Ikarekebai Declaration – a powerful message of collective responsibility from the people of Kiribati.
Thanking ICLEI for having galvanized and focused on what cities have to do to get delivery of policy, Adelaide’s Lord Mayor, Jane Lomax-Smith, continued: “We have to find ways to work together. Our Town Hall COP brought together all of local governments. Because although I’m the Lord Mayor of the centre of our city, we have multiple councils around who are all part of the solution. We want every one of those councils to be involved in the COP, to be part of the discussion and part of the solution,” she said. “In the coming year, whether or not we get COP31, we need a runaway to COP31, where we talk to our citizens, we get a social license for more reform… We would want to invite people from the Pacific Islands, and we also want to engage the youth.”
“We said that three things have to happen: Town Hall COPs need to be community-led, nationally relevant, and transformation oriented,” said Yunus Arikan ICLEI Director of Global Advocacy. “Across the world we have seen more than 50 Town Hall COPs hosted. But the ones in Kiribati, Adelaide and Sydney, and the ones across Africa, as a collective, have shown best practice in terms of meeting all of these three criteria.”
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