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LEDS GP Subnational Integration Working Group factsheet (October 2015)

5pm, October 10th, 2015

The LEDS GP Subnational Integration Working Group aims to accelerate climate-resilient, low-emission development by improving and supporting the coordination and vertical integration of climate action between national and subnational governments.

While the increase in climate initiatives by subnational governments and non-state actors is undoubtedly bringing much needed and untapped greenhouse gas mitigation potential to fruition, the concerted coordination and vertical integration of climate initiatives is a unique opportunity to capture significant additional value. Integration will not only increase the probability of achieving more aggressive Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs) – as pledged to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). It can also improve synergies with concurrent national development objectives and other multilateral agreements, such as the post-2015 Sustainable Development Goals.

The coordination and vertical integration of subnational climate actions can:
• raise national government ambitions for more aggressive greenhouse gas mitigation commitments
• scale up and unlock new mitigation opportunities at the local level
• help to alleviate domestic political constraints to transformational climate actions
• enable ‘safe learning’ and strengthen domestic institutions
• confront particular technical barriers and limits to subnational and non-state actors’ climate actions
• strengthen measurement, reporting and verification (MRV) to improve the consistency of subnational and national climate data sets
• create a more bankable, ‘low-risk’ environment for green infrastructure investments
• expand and accelerate international public and private climate finance to cities, urban infrastructure and priority local issues
• accelerate the implementation of ‘bundled’ national development priorities to improve synergies with concurrent national development objectives and other multilateral agreements.

Read more about the activities of the Subnational Integration Working Group, including how to contact the group and get involved, by downloading the factsheet at right.

Image: courtesy Carsten ten Brink, flickr.com

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LEDS GP Subnational Integration Working Group
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