Energy Monitor senior writer Dave Keating in conversation with Dublin City Council member Alison Gilliland, representing the European Committee of the Regions, at COP27 in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt.

It isn’t just countries that are sending delegates to the COP27 climate summit in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt. Cities and regions are sending delegates as well, and in Europe this is being coordinated by the Committee of the Regions, an EU advisory body based in Brussels made up of local and regional representatives who weigh in on EU laws.

Alison Gilliland, a Dublin City Councillor who until four months ago served as the Lord Mayor of Dublin, is representing the Irish capital at the summit. “Cities, regions and local authorities are responsible for almost 70% of mitigation measures, and 90% of adaptation,” she tells Energy Monitor. “So we do play a key role on the ground, and we want that to be more formally recognised. We want to be at the table of climate dialogue when it comes to designing those actions – not just when we are implementing them.”

Gilliland is spending this week advocating for the role of local authorities to be officially recognised in the conclusions adopted at the end of the summit. Cities should have an official role at COP27.

“We are seeking to persuade the powers that be that in that outcome document, we will have a formal recognition within the structures,” she says. “We are also calling for regional and locally determined contributions that would complement our national NDCs. We think that if you split a country down into more manageable chunks and evaluate what is happening on the ground, you can really identify those areas that are excelling and those areas that perhaps need a little bit more support.”

Climate action beyond cities at COP27:

Reporter Nour Ghantous (week one) and senior writer Dave Keating (week two) are reporting from COP27 in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, on behalf of Energy Monitor and our parent company, GlobalData. They are providing the data-led analysis you have come to expect from Energy Monitor but also something new: video interviews with business leaders, policymakers and campaigners. We encourage you to return often to our Energy Monitor home page for updates from the conference. You can also sign up for our free biweekly newsletter here.

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Other recent COP27 coverage includes:

COP27: “Green hydrogen is one of the bright spots of this COP” – Jonas Moberg, CEO of GH2, by Nour Ghantous (14 November)

COP27: Ukraine energy company DTEK maintains net-zero goal, by Nour Ghantous (14 November)

Opinion: COP27 comes after a year of unfulfilled COP26 promises, by Nick Ferris (11 November)

COP27: Data science can strengthen climate action, by Nour Ghantous (11 November)

COP27: Alpine Group proffers recycled textiles to combat climate, by Nour Ghantous (10 November)

Why the financial odds are stacked against developing countries, by Isabeau van Halm and Polly Bindman (9 November)

COP27: International Labour Organization wants to see a just transition “actually implemented”, by Nour Ghantous (9 November)

COP27 take note: Climate tech funding has soared in 2022, by Eric Johansson (9 November)

COP27: How countries compare on carbon emissions and pledges, by Nick Ferris (7 November)

COP27: Mattie Yeta, CGI’s chief sustainability officer, on the first-ever ‘metaverse COP’, by Nour Ghantous (7 November)

Which countries are already at net zero?, by Nick Ferris (25 October)

COP27: Manage your expectations, by Nour Ghantous (21 September)