Staff from the 4 GCoM USA ‘Regional and Metro-scale Climate Leaders’ regions (Chicago; Denver/Boulder; Kansas City and Washington) travelled to Brussels in November for meetings with the GCoM Global Secretariat and other European counterparts. As part of the agenda, the US regions met with metropolitan organisations from Barcelona, Brussels and Stuttgart, all of which have significant experience in regional climate action planning as signatories of the Global Covenant. The European Commission’s Joint Research Centre and EU Covenant of Mayors Office were also present to provide some regional context. The discussion was highly productive with useful ideas exchanged between all organisations and a future need for more trans-Atlantic dialogue on the topic of climate change between metropolitan organisations was agreed.

The ’Regional and Metro-scale Climate Leaders’ was developed as an initiative of GCoM USA, funded by the European Union through it’s ‘International Urban Cooperation’ (IUC) program. Through an application process, the successful regions were selected to show leadership in climate change. IUC and GCoM will be working closely with the beneficiaries to help develop a regional Climate Action Plans through coordination and cooperation at the metropolitan level as well as through contracted technical assistance funded by IUC. The initiative is an opportunity for metropolitan and regional associations of government to collaborate with municipalities locally and to learn and exchange with other regions internationally, with the aim of producing a successful case study for ambitious climate action which will be promoted nationally and globally through the GCoM network.