European non-state actors contribute to the Talanoa Dialogue

The Climate Chance Association, the European Economic and Social Committee and the European Committee of the Regions organised jointly a European Dialogue on Non-State Climate Action on 23 April 2018 in Brussels. Its purpose was to put forward an action plan aimed at assessing, recognising, accelerating and supporting positive climate actions by non-state actors: civil society, business, workers, sub-national authorities (regions and cities). The event was part of the Talanoa Dialogue, a participatory process launched at COP 23 in 2017 under the Fijian presidency to allow countries to assess the progress made so far towards achieving the long-term goal of the Paris Agreement, and to help them increase the ambition of their Nationally Determined Contributions by 2020. The Talanoa Dialogue seeks to answer three questions, around which the event was structured: “Where are we?”, “Where do we want to go?” and “How do we get there?
“Non-state actors must be seen as equal partners to the state representatives, not merely an adjunct. More synergies between state and non-state actors are therefore needed” stressed Ronan Dantec, President of the Climate Chance Association.
This event brought together experts from national and subnational governments, the private sector, financial institutions and leading international and civil society organisations. Representatives of the UNFCCC – Thomasz Chruszczow, High-Level Climate Champion ; Niclas Svenningsen, of the UNFCCC Sustainable Development Mechanisms – and of the European Commission – Yvon Slingenberg, Director International, Mainstreaming & Policy Coordination and Elina Bardram, Head of Unit in the European Commission’s Directorate General for Climate Action, also took part of the discussion.
Its conclusions have been submitted as inputs in the Talanoa Dialogue.