Background

The regional ACE workshop responds to the request to the secretariat to promote the development of regional and local networks and platforms that support ACE activities at the regional, national and local level, encouraging the involvement of youth, women, academics, children, traditional leaders and indigenous peoples in developing and implementing ACE activities and providing capacity-building in this regard (Action Plan of the Glasgow work programme on ACE Activity B.2, priority area coordinated action)

The regional ACE workshop is supported by the Action for Climate Empowerment Hub (ACE Hub). The ACE Hub is a three-year collaboration between the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Industry, Climate Action and Energy of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and UN Climate Change. The overarching goal of the project is to foster the implementation of ACE, as well as to enhance the cooperation between national governments, non-Party stakeholders and organizations, experts and companies within and outside NRW in addressing climate change.

Description and Objective

The regional ACE workshop will be organized as an in-person event during the regional climate weeks with possibility of a virtual streaming service. The workshop will be an open event to allow for the participation of Party and non-Party stakeholders to strengthen ACE implementation within the region.

The 2023 Regional Climate Weeks provide a timely opportunity for policymakers, practitioners, business and civil society to exchange on climate solutions, approaches for overcoming barriers, and opportunities realized in the region. The aim is  to provide region focused contributions across four major systems-based tracks to inform the global Stocktake:

• Energy systems and industry;
• Cities, urban and rural settlements, infrastructure and transport;
• Land, ocean, food and water; 
• Societies, health, livelihoods, and economies. 

Such systemic transformation requires not only significant investments and uptake of innovative solutions well beyond the current levels of available climate finance, but also other types of enabling support, such as utilizing the toolbox that ACE presents. The six elements of ACE provide a toolbox for everyone to learn how they can be empowered to be a part of the solution in transitioning to a just, low-emission, climate resilient world through a change in systems, attitudes and behaviours needed to foster sustainable development and manage the impacts of climate change.

The workshop will therefore discuss ACE as a tool for systems transformation. This will be achieved by providing examples of what it means to use ACE as a toolbox in delivering climate mandates, policies and commitments and in addition, identify ways to further strengthen the mainstreaming of the use of the ACE toolbox.