PARIS — National governments are not the only ones that have pledged post-2020 greenhouse gas emission cuts to combat global warming. Local authorities yesterday also got into the act, with cities and regions from five continents coming together to announce their own five-year vision on climate change on the sidelines of the Paris Climate Conference, where negotiators are trying to reach a universal climate pact.

“For us to stay below the 2°C goal, it will only be possible if local and regional actions are accelerated,” said French Minister for Ecology, Sustainable Development and Energy Segolene Royal at the launch of the vision, referring to how the negotiators are aiming to stop global temperatures rising more than 2°C above pre-industrial levels. In fact, 70 per cent of actions to combat global warming must be at the subnational level, she added.

According to the Non-State Actor Zone for Climate Action (NAZCA) commitments platform website — launched at last year’s climate change talks in Peru — 2,255 cities and 150 regions have committed to emission reduction goals. Collectively, this represents 17 per cent of the world’s population.

To inject further momentum for regions and cities to combat climate change, Ms Royal said more than 100 local French authorities will be announcing their pledges to reduce emissions on the sidelines of the ongoing talks to negotiate a global climate change framework after the current Kyoto Protocol pact expires in 2020.

The five-year vision hopes to align local actions and commitments around four main objectives, namely: increasing the number of cities and regions that implement a climate action plan; helping vulnerable populations build resilience against climate change; ensuring increased access to finance for climate planning; and supporting partnerships between different levels of governments.

According to a statement by the Lima-Paris Action Agenda (LPAA) Focus on Cities and Regions Climate Action yesterday, “cities and regions are at the heart of their countries’ economic development and generate a large share of global gross domestic product”, adding that urban areas are responsible for up to 49 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions.

The statement said that addressing climate change requires a deep transformation of local economic development models.

The LPAA — a joint undertaking of the Peruvian and French climate conference presidencies, the Office of the Secretary-General of the United Nations and the United Framework Convention for Climate Change Secretariat — has been holding a series of events and announcements to generate momentum for climate actions this year, including yesterday’s event showcasing the efforts of cities and regions.

The website of the non-state actors’ commitments indicates that a variety of bottom-up pledges by subnational actors have been inscribed. For instance, the Japanese city of Hakodate in Hokkaido has pledged to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from the community by 25 per cent by 2020, based on 1990 levels. Further afield, the Bolivian capital of La Paz has said that it will reduce direct carbon dioxide emissions from transport by 14.15 per cent from 2014 to 2018.

Despite this wave of action by subnational actors, the issue of how local authorities can tap into finance to plan for, and deal with, climate change remains a key challenge.

“Money is a big issue in cities … In times of crisis, it is not always easy to say that we will put money into retrofitting and developing renewable energy,” said Deputy Paris Mayor Celia Blauel, who was also at the launch of the five-year vision.

“We need to establish mechanisms to draw in the private sector (to help local authorities finance climate actions). This means creating incentives for them to get involved,” added President of the West African Economic and Monetary Union, Cheikh Hadjibou Soumare.