VI Seminar, Costa Rica 2016
The European Commission approved for the new EUROCLIMA+ programme a first allocation of 40 million euros to cooperate with Latin America to mitigate and adapt to climate change. EUROCLIMA+ will focus especially on the implementation of the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) under the Paris Agreement. The meeting also served to prepare a future second allocation of funds to EUROCLIMA+ for climate action.
Over three days, the seminars served to discuss the results of ongoing regional cooperation on climate change.
To date, EUROCLIMA has trained more than 3000 national and local government officials and other experts to strengthen their capacities, conducted more than 100 research studies to facilitate government decision-making, strengthened exchanges of knowledge and experience among all countries in the region, and is supporting countries in accessing major international funds that finance climate action.
On the other hand, the priorities of the countries of the region for the coming years were discussed: climate-smart cities, disaster risk management, forests and biodiversity, water management in an urban context, energy efficiency and renewable energy, and sustainable food production.
More than 75 representatives from 18 Latin American countries met, as well as from the European Union, EUROCLIMA implementing institutions, European cooperation agencies that will implement EUROCLIMA+ and other organisations implementing climate change actions in the region.
The opening of the EUROCLIMA and EUROCLIMA+ seminars took place on Wednesday 21 September and was attended by the Vice-Minister of Energy of Costa Rica, Irene Cañas Díaz; the Ambassador of the European Union in Costa Rica, Pelayo Castro and the Director General of CATIE, Muhammad Ibrahim..