Climate change impacts directly or indirectly on development objectives, in particular on the Millennium development goals and the target to reduce the number of people living in poverty. Climate change causes more vulnerability in low-income countries, where the poor have greater dependence on climate sensitive sectors, than in the responsible countries in the North. Droughts, floods and other natural disasters put already vulnerable communities at risk and strain their ability to meet their basic food requirements, all the more as their members earn their livelihood from self-sustaining agricultural activity.

Climate change has a geopolitical dimension and consequently climate equity and multilateralism must become new paradigms. On the one hand, developing countries have a relatively small responsibility regarding climate change. On the other hand, they have a reduced capacity to adapt, often an exploding demography as well as a legitimate right to economic growth. Therefore, developed countries should address this global phenomenon in a concerted manner through multi-stakeholder and multi-level initiatives.

Regional and local administrations have a central role to play in fighting against and mitigating climate change. They are the ones that decide and implement policies in areas that suffer as a result of climate change or where adaption to its consequences can be effected, notably environment, transport, infrastructure, aggregation systems for agriculture and disaster risk management.

 PLATFORMA brings together networks of local and regional authorities already working on climate change in their international cooperation activities. The aim of this conference is therefore to exchange local and regional experiences and innovative best practices related to the prevention and adaptation to climate change. Proposals will be elaborated on how regional and local authorities can improve their cooperation, in order to strengthen their participation in the global fight against climate change