Opinion: UN regional climate weeks in the global south must be reinstated

The announcement last month by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the U.N. climate change body, on the cancellation of its annual regional climate weeks in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East and North Africa was met with a muted response from governments, international climate NGOs, and philanthropies. It was left mostly to a few voices from these regions to express concern over the decision.

Despite some impressive rhetoric coming from the West on the role of global south countries in climate solutions, the cancellation of the regional weeks shows that this is not backed up by action and funding. Without funding, these regional platforms cannot take place. This is a bitter pill for the climate world to swallow as we watch defense budgets continue to rise.

Regional climate weeks have emerged as important forums to gather and identify climate solutions for the regions of the world where climate impacts are felt the most. The regional climate weeks build momentum toward — and feed into — the yearly Conference of the Parties, or COPs, where U.N. member states meet to address climate change.