Tag Archives: territories

Report “Euro-Med sub-national governments in the fight against climate change”

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FEMISE is pleased to announce the publication of the report on “Euro-Med sub-national governments in the fight against climate change: a framework for action, an example of the SUD Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur Region and opportunities for cooperation at the Mediterranean scale.

The report (in french) is available for download by clicking here.

 

Press Release

December 7, 2018 – Report release

By INSTITUT DE LA MEDITERRANEE and its partners, FEMISE and ENERGIES2050

INSTITUT DE LA MEDITERRANEE (IM)[1] and its partners, FEMISE and association ENERGIES2050, announce the publication of the final version of the report on “Euro-Med sub-national governments in the fight against climate change: Framework for action, example of Région SUD Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur and opportunities for cooperation at the Mediterranean level “

This report, articulated in three chapters, offers a photograph of the initiatives and dynamics undertaken by Région SUD (France) in the fight against the effects of climate change and also fits within the framework of the great Euro-Mediterranean cooperation.

The first chapter deals with the “Framework for action of the Mediterranean territories of Europe in the face of climate change“. It underlines that subnational governments face many challenges in implementing an ambitious and integrated climate action. Issues of access to finance, capacity to design strategies adapted to territorial issues, relying on local data, action monitoring (MRV) and the need for support and framing from higher echelons of governance are crucial.

The second chapter deals with “The territorial response to climate issues in the Mediterranean: the example of the Région SUD“. The report notes that the action of local authorities, in France in general and in the Région SUD in particular, benefits from an incentive and coherent legal framework, which is supported by regional information systems provided. In accordance with the policies adopted at the national level, the communities of Région SUD have engaged in the implementation of integrated climate strategies in the form of PCET (Climate Territorial Energy Plans) and then PCAET (Climate Air Energy Territorial Plans). Beyond this process, there is a proliferation of initiatives aimed in particular at better involving all actors in climate action. However, the transparency of the results of these actions remains relatively weak.

The third chapter covers the theme of “Cooperations, territories and climate at the scale of the Mediterranean basin and beyond” and offers many tracks for reflection for the future. One of the first reflections revolves on placing the climate / territory issue at the center of the Euro-Mediterranean cooperation strategy. Région SUD could bring valuable feedbacks. In addition, a platform at the service of territories in this area offering the possibility to capitalize, to exchange, to train, to allow a dialogue with the world of regional statistics and to offer technical assistance could be supported at the regional level, in particular through emerging initiatives such as the Mediterranean House of Climate.

The growing involvement of the private sector could also generate relevant initiatives. Proposals for action on Euro-Mediterranean cooperation could include the creation of an “ERASMUS of social and environmental entrepreneurship” and a Mediterranean Initiative for Social and Environmental Finance, aligning business creation and capital flows with the objectives of reducing local social and environmental externalities.

This report is rooted in IM’s willingness to mobilize its network and partners to contribute to debates on a shared commitment to climate issues. It is also part of the follow-up on the background work on climate and territorial issues that has been carried out for years by ENERGIES 2050, particularly in the context of the development and implementation of low-carbon territorial strategies. In view of the follow-up given to the international event “Mediterranean of the Future”, organized by Région SUD (21 November 2017, in Marseille), IM, FEMISE and ENERGIES 2050 believe in the unifying capacity of our territory on these issues. This report also builds on the momentum generated by the workshop “Climate change in a Mediterranean in transition” (May 15, 2018, Marseille, co-organized with the Departmental Council of Bouches-du-Rhône), which allowed to illustrate territorial solutions for climate challenges in the Euro-Mediterranean region. The effective support of the Departmental Council of Bouches-du-Rhône has reinforced a real multi-stakeholder movement that has only strengthened this relationship. Exchanges with the services of the City of Marseille, particularly on issues of sustainable development and engineering of local governance, were also valuable.

This report is intended to become a regular publication.

It is available by clicking here.

It is also available on the website of ENERGIES2050.

For more information, please contact:

IM / FEMISE: Dr. Constantin Tsakas, General Manager of Institut de la Méditerranée, General Secretary of FEMISE c.tsakas@femise.org – + 33 (0)4 91 31 51 95 www.femise.org

ENERGIES 2050: Stéphane POUFFARY, General Manager of Association ENERGIES 2050 – stephane.pouffary@energies2050.org – +33 (0)6 80 31 91 89 www.energies2050.org

This report was funded by IM, developed with the financial support of the European Union under the EU-FEMISE contract on “Support to Economic Research, Studies and Dialogues of the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership”. The content of the publication is the sole responsibility of the authors.

[1] Founded in 1994 by the Regional Council Provence Alpes Côte d’Azur (PACA), the General Council of Bouches-du-Rhone, the City of Marseille, the Chamber of Commerce and Industry Marseille Provence

Decentralization and Economic Performance in Selected South Mediterranean Countries

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The project attempts to understand the specific nature of “State” and “Sub-state” relationships in Southern Mediterranean countries and its role in driving spatial economic and social disparities. The report is structured in three parts. The first part provides an overview of the literature on decentralization and regional development. The second part focuses on the political economy of the process of decentralization in the three selected south Mediterranean countries. To a large extent this part presents the key findings of the country studies completed under the research project. Three countries have been covered, namely Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia. The third part presents the findings of the econometric investigation of the relationship between proxies of regional performance and decentralization indicators. This part is a preliminary analytical attempt to understand the channels through which financial decentralization proxies such as the volume of local revenues or the share of central-state transfers in local revenues are interacting with socio-economic indicators such as unemployment rates and firms’ location across the national territory.

South Mediterranean countries have more centralized states when compared to other emerging and developing countries. The three countries (Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia) are unitary states with multiple layers in the sub-national administration. The three countries are endowed with a dual system of elected and appointed authority at each layer. The range of activities devolved to sub-national administration seems to be broader in Morocco and Tunisia compared to Egypt.

Before the collapse of Mubarak’s regime in Egypt, the National Democratic Party (NDP) dominated local popular councils, which led to poor checks and balances on the executive councils. The ex-military officials have been often appointed as heads of the Local Executive Councils (LECs). In Tunisia, Ben Ali’s ruling party (RCD) played a major role in local politics before revolution, which undermined potential benefits of decentralization. In Morocco, no single political party dominated local politics. Yet, the high number of political parties and the election mode adopted has led in many cases to fragmentation of local councils and unstable political alliances.

Decentralization in the three countries is handicapped by limited financial strength of local administration. The share of local administration spending in GDP is estimated to 4.6. Wages and other current costs dominate local spending. The three countries have poor local revenues due to limited fiscal decentralization. Local entities in the three countries suffer from an excessive dependence on the central government’s transfers. Despite multiple and sophisticated criteria used, the distribution of the central state transfers to local entities is questionable and does not fulfil its purposes. Regional disparities, although to a large extent explained by different regional initial conditions and unequal natural endowments; are exacerbated by public policies.

Empirically, the project investigates the specific impact of decentralization on economic and social outcomes. Data availability constrained the extent to which a more ambitious econometric exercise could be conducted. At this stage, the key conclusion of our econometric exercise is that the pattern of decentralization as it stands today in the countries investigated does not seem to affect neither regional unemployment rates nor firms’ location.

The Arab uprisings have liberated people’s voices including in remote areas usually forgotten or marginalized in national politics. The emerging political debate in the transition towards democracy in the south Mediterranean should lead to a new era in the relationships between the central state and the sub-national territories. Further research need to be conducted in order to determine the right mix, for each country, between providing incentives from better service delivery through political and fiscal decentralization while at the same time ensuring that the principle of national solidarity plays its role via central state transfers to adjust for regional disparities.