Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy (GCOM)

The Global Covenant of Mayors is an international alliance of cities and local governments with a shared long-term vision of promoting and supporting voluntary action to combat Climate Change and move to a low-emission resilient society.

This project was launched in the Caribbean region on June 12th in Port of Spain (Trinidad and Tobago), during the Caribbean Urban Forum (CUF 2019). TTALGA represented by Anthony Roberts as well as the mayors of Belmopan (Belize), Georgetown (Guyana), Portsmouth (Dominica) and May Pen (Jamaica) showed leadership in agreeing to take action on climate change by joining the GCoM. This showed leadership in agreeing to take action on climate change by joining the GCoM. It means an increase in their level of commitment to the development of sustainability policies in their areas, with a focus on the achievement of the Paris Agreement goals at the local level.

The Covenant of Mayors helps local authorities to translate their commitments into reality, while taking into account the immense diversity on the ground. It provides signatories with a set of methodological principles (defined in the gifted Guidebook) and a harmonized data compilation and reporting framework consisting of a reporting template and complemented by comprehensive reporting guidelines which are unique to Europe.

These reference documents have been developed by the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission and the Covenant of Mayors Office - in collaboration with a group of practitioners from local and regional authorities.

The aim of The Joint Research Committee (JRC) support is to help local authorities (LA) in the preparation, development implementation and monitoring of the LA’s Climate Action Plan (CAP) covering both mitigation and adaptation to climate change. ∙

1. Define the key elements of the initiative

2. Elaborate a Baseline Emission inventory (BEI)

3. Perform a Risk and Vulnerabilities Assessment (RVA)

4. Develop a Sustainable Energy and Climate Action Plan (SECAP)

5. Support the implementation and monitoring of the SECAP

The BEI has to be relevant to the local situation, i.e., based on energy consumption/production data, mobility data etc. within the territory of the local authority. Estimates based on national/regional averages would not be appropriate in most cases, as they do not allow capturing the efforts made by the local authority to reach its CO2 targets.

Trinidad is still compiling emission data to accommodate suitable measurable actions

The RVA enables local authorities to identify their exposure to current and potential Climate Change impacts, vulnerabilities and risks, as well as understand the main city specificities that contribute to aggravating the consequences of a specific climate hazard. Being identified as; flash flooding, wildfires, landslides and coastal erosion. Assessing climate risks and vulnerabilities is one of the first steps in creating adaptation actions.

We would like to thank the participating municipals as we re energize our efforts with GCOM