At the 135th plenary session of the European Committee of the Regions, members got the opportunity to share their views with Miguel Arias Cañete, European Commissioner for Climate and energy. The debate focused on the importance of multilevel governance in order to fight climate change and energy poverty. The CoR also adopted an opinion that contributes to the EU 2050 climate neutral strategy. The CoR asks to raise the share of the EU budget spent on climate and that current EU targets are revisited in order to achieve climate neutrality by 2050.

During the debate, the EA member and ENVE coordinator, Cllr Andrew Cooper, recalled that current measures are not sufficient to avert climate emergency. He stressed that locally determined contributions could make it possible to achieve global targets and that local and regional governments must be fully involved in the definition and implementation of National Energy and Climate plans.

"If governments are led by dinosaurs, we will end up like dinosaurs," he said.  

EA members Pierluigi Marquis and József Kóbor also took part in the debate and highlighted respectively the challenges of mountain areas and the need to address the potential negative impacts of nuclear power plants on the socio-economic development of municipalities.