On 18 January 2021, the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) held an online debate on the responsibility of parliamentarians and local and regional elected representatives in the fight against climate change. A joint contribution to the World Democracy Forum, the event highlighted the role and critical importance of elected representatives in safeguarding and developing democratic procedures, without which governments will not be able to secure public support for measures to adapt to the climate emergency.

The climate crisis and its health, economic and social consequences represent a crucial test for representative democracy both in Europe and the world. "Measures decided at national and international level to combat climate change can only succeed if local and regional elected representatives make a decisive contribution", stressed Gunn Marit Helgesen, Vice-President of the Congress (Norway, EPP/CCE).

As a matter of fact, local democracy plays a fundamental role in raising awareness on climate issues, but also on solving practical problems experienced by residents and businesses. This is why the Congress is called upon to play a key role in mobilising local and regional action to protect the planet and citizens' health: through the exchange of good practices, the strengthening of the principle of subsidiarity, but also by extending the "freedom to act" of local and regional authorities, a real autonomy in the fight against climate change which needs to be ensured. Hence Mrs Helgesen's support for the idea of an additional protocol to the European Charter of Local Self-Government which would recognise the role and further guarantee the political, administrative and financial independence of local elected representatives in environmental matters. Mrs Helgesen insists - in her capacity as Co-President of the Council of European Municipalities and Regions (CEMR) and First Vice-President of the Norwegian Association of Local and Regional Authorities (Norway, EPP/CCE) – that local and regional elected representatives are best placed to respond to the climate emergency because they know the specificities of communities and can act on many factors related to climate change, including local production and consumption habits, land and energy use planning, private and public transport etc. Not to mention that it is above all at local and regional level that citizens rally to demand concrete measures in support of the environment.

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