MCAP at COP30

Rio de Janeiro - November 3-7, 2025
Belem - November 10-20, 2025

MCAP Action & Implementation

COP29 Joint Statement
Mini Sprint Update

In 2025, at COP30 in Rio de Janeiro and Belem, Brazil, the Mediterranean Climate Action Partnership will showcase the action lead by its member regions across five continents.

Last year, at COP29, leaders representing 16 subnational governments for regions with Mediterranean climate types came together under MCAP to issue a joint statement, calling upon the UNFCCC and COP leaders to recognize the importance of Mediterranean bioregions and committed to enhance cooperation among subnational governments with Mediterranean climates.

Since then, MCAP has translated that call to action into tangible implementation.

The MCAP Secretariat launched the Mini Sprint initiative to spur acceleration and collaboration by leveraging the expertise and knowledge of MCAP member regions. Through this effort, MCAP unlocked $150,000 in philanthropic funds to help advance three projects across six partner regions to address extreme heat, wildfire, and drought.

MCAP is developing a first of its kind Action Index, compiling actions being undertaken to build resilience across its member regions. The Action Index, which will be completed in 2026, provides the first comparative snapshot of real actions being implemented across five continents, highlighting where progress is being made and what’s working to create a foundation for faster, evidence-based action in regions facing some of the world’s most severe climate pressures.

Member regions have also demonstrated significant leadership through financial investment in advancing climate action. In 2025, the MCAP member regions of Catalonia, Tangier-Tetouan-Al Hoceima, Santiago de Chile, and Western Cape contributed more than $225,500 to the Partnership, signaling the importance of subnational climate action and investment in collaboration to address shared climate challenges. In June 2025, member regions also voted to formalize membership contributions including dues and other supports into the MCAP charter, signaling not only commitment, but financial investment in the Partnership.

Read Full Update Here
Action Index Briefing
Contributions Memo

MCAP Events at COP30

Subnational governments often play a multi-functional role, often fill in the gaps left by national governments. They are less visible than national or municipal levels, but still, they carry a huge burden in implementation. In addition, bioregional approaches to climate change have increasingly been formalized as an approach to collaboration, exchanging knowledge, and accelerating adaptation globally for areas that face similar challenges due to their shared environmental characteristics.

This panel will explore these unique approaches to climate adaptation and resilience and highlight regional voices that must be more prominently empowered in global climate forums.

Learn more

November 18

Innovative Approaches to Driving Climate Action: Subnational Leadership & Bioregional Collaboration in Climate Adaptation and Resilience

Time: 13:15 h - 14:45 h (local time)
Venue: Side Event Room 5 , (Blue zone), COP30
Lead Organizers: Mediterranean Climate Action Partnership, Resilient Cities Catalyst (MCAP Secretariat) Regions4, and Catalonia.

Learn more

This panel will demonstrate how interregional cooperation transforms local experiences into scalable solutions for Mediterranean climate resilience. Through the Mediterranean Climate Action Partnership (MCAP), speakers will explore how solutions can be transposed between regions for more effective adaptation and highlight the critical role subnational governments play in climate adaptation and resilience.

MCAP member regions Catalonia, New South Wales, and Western Cape will participate in a lively discussion followed by a short documentary screening showcasing New South Wales’ work to integrate traditional cultural practices of the Aboriginal people into their wildfire management, including better land stewardship and cultural burning.

November 11

From Droughts to Heatwaves to Wildfires: Mediterranean Regions Teaming Up for Climate Resilience

Time:16.00 h – 17.00 h (local time)
Venue: Spanish Pavilion (Blue zone), COP30
Lead Organizers: Mediterranean Climate Action Partnership, Resilient Cities Catalyst (MCAP Secretariat) Regions4, and Catalonia.

MCAP Talking Points

The Mediterranean Climate Action Partnership (MCAP) encourages all persons to integrate the Partnership into their public and private dialogues. This resource intends to familiarize government representatives of member regions who are representing MCAP internally or externally and support anyone who is representing the Partnership publicly by providing resources to easily develop speeches or talking points for delegates across conference programming. 

MCAP language is meant to be somewhat evergreen, but additional tailored messaging is included to support those attending COP30 events. Resources included are as follows:

  • MCAP Overview and Key Points

  • COP30 Messaging for MCAP 

  • COP30 Programming & Logistics

Download Full PDF

Social Media Graphics and Logos

Access Mini Sprint Socials
Download Social Graphics
Access COP30 Template

Social Media Copy

Introduction to MCAP

  • 🌍 MCAP is a working partnership of regional governments across five continents with Mediterranean climates - places already managing drought, wildfire, and extreme heat at the scale where impacts are lived and where implementation happens. Regional governments hold the levers that translate climate strategy into delivery, and COP30 is a moment to bring that applied experience into global view while solutions are being executed in real time.

    Mediterranean regions are acting under escalating conditions now, not drafting for later. MCAP exists to carry those live lessons into a space where they can inform others: transferring solutions across similar climate contexts, converting implementation into shared guidance, and building common tools such as the Action Index, Commitments Memo, and Mini-Sprint outputs so that what is working in one region can move to the next.

    MCAP is not a pledge body - it is an implementation partnership designed to make climate action travel across bioregions.

    #MCAP #COP30 #MediterraneanClimate #ClimateAction #SubnationalLeadership #Resilience #Implementation #BioregionalApproach

  • 🌍 MCAP is a working partnership of regional governments across five continents with Mediterranean climates - places already managing drought, wildfire, and extreme heat at the scale where impacts are lived and where implementation happens. Regional governments hold the levers that translate climate strategy into delivery, and COP30 is a moment to bring that applied experience into global view while solutions are being executed in real time.

    Mediterranean regions are acting under escalating conditions now, not drafting for later. MCAP seeks to inform others: transferring solutions across similar climate contexts, converting implementation into shared guidance, and building common tools for climate adaptation and resilience.

    #MCAP #COP30 #MediterraneanClimate #ClimateAction #SubnationalLeadership #Resilience #Implementation #BioregionalApproach

MCAP at COP30

  • 🌍 MCAP regions will participate in COP30 in Rio and Belém to contribute the perspective of governments that are already implementing climate action in Mediterranean climates. These regions are managing drought, wildfire, and extreme heat under real operating conditions, and COP30 offers a venue to share how that work is being advanced at the subnational level.

    Across the Spanish Pavilion, the UNFCCC side event, and partner programming, MCAP will highlight approaches in policy, coordination, and delivery that can inform other regions facing similar climate realities. The reflections and exchanges from COP30 will also inform two upcoming shared resources - the MCAP Action Index and the Commitments Memo - which will organize member practices into tools that can support Mediterranean bioregions beyond this convening.

    MCAP’s participation at COP30 is not to introduce a new agenda, but to contribute active work and convert it into shared guidance for regions with parallel climate pressures.

    #COP30 #MCAP #MediterraneanClimate #SubnationalLeadership #Resilience #Implementation #BioregionalApproach

  • 🌍 MCAP regions will participate in COP30 in Rio and Belém to contribute the perspective of governments that are already implementing climate action in Mediterranean climates. These regions are managing drought, wildfire, and extreme heat under real operating conditions.

    Across the Spanish Pavilion, the UNFCCC side event, and partner programming, MCAP will highlight approaches in policy, coordination, and delivery that can inform other regions facing similar climate realities. The reflections and exchanges will also showcase two resources - the MCAP Action Index and the MCAP Commitments Memo - which will organize member practices into tools that can support Mediterranean bioregions beyond this convening.

    MCAP’s is at COP30 to contribute active work and convert it into shared guidance for regions with parallel climate pressures.

    #COP30 #MCAP #MediterraneanClimate #SubnationalLeadership #Resilience #Implementation #BioregionalApproach

MCAP Events

  • MCAP regions will speak at the Spanish Pavilion on November 11 from 16:00–17:00 (local time) as part of COP30 programming in Belém. The session will focus on how Mediterranean climate regions are advancing climate action through regional implementation and bioregional coordination.

    MCAP was created to enable regions with similar climate conditions to exchange what is already being implemented and make those approaches transferable across jurisdictions. MCAP’s presence at COP30 reflects this purpose - bringing lived implementation experience into a global forum so that what is working in Mediterranean bioregions can inform and support action elsewhere.

    Speakers from Catalonia, Western Cape, and New South Wales will share how drought, wildfire, and extreme heat responses are being carried out in practice, and how cross-regional coordination is shaping that work.

    #COP30 #MCAP #SpanishPavilion #MediterraneanClimate #Implementation #SubnationalLeadership #BioregionalApproach #ClimateAction

  • At COP30 on November 18 from 13:15–14:45 in the Blue Zone (Side Events Room 5), leaders from California, South Australia, Paraná (Brazil), Catalonia, CREAF, Under2, and the Gordon & Betty Moore Foundation will join MCAP, Regions4, Catalonia, and RCC for an official UNFCCC side event on how regional governments deliver climate action under real-world conditions.

    Subnational governments are where climate policy becomes implementation - they regulate land and water, direct funding, coordinate agencies, and are accountable for public outcomes. In many cases, they are advancing progress faster than national governments, while navigating political timelines, capacity limits, and institutional delays.

    This session will examine what that delivery looks like in practice, and why collaboration across similar climate zones is accelerating results. When drought-, wildfire-, and heat-affected regions share tested approaches rather than inventing new ones in parallel, solutions travel further, faster, and with greater fidelity to place.

    This event contributes to MCAP’s central purpose at COP30: to position regional-level collaboration not as a side effort but as one of the primary mechanisms through which global ambition becomes implementation.

    Hosted by MCAP, Regions4, Catalonia, and RCC
    #COP30 #UNFCCC #MCAP #SubnationalLeadership #SubnationalDelivery #BioregionalApproach #Implementation #ClimateAction #MediterraneanClimate

MCAP Implementation & Action

  • The MCAP Action Index will be the first catalog of real climate action in Mediterranean bioregions-  showing how regional governments across five continents are responding to drought, wildfire, and extreme heat in practice. It captures what MCAP member regions are already doing under 2025 conditions, not what they intend to do later.

    The purpose of the Index is to make that work visible and transferable, so that regions facing similar climate realities can learn from one another instead of advancing separately.

    The Index will also reflect the economic and social realities shaping implementation in each place, and will include guidance from the MCAP Secretariat on how these solutions may translate across different Mediterranean contexts.

    #MCAP #ActionIndex #MediterraneanClimate #Implementation #SubnationalLeadership #Resilience #BioregionalApproach #ClimateAction

  • Member regions have demonstrated significant leadership through financial investment in advancing climate action. Financial contributions signal the value of the MCAP and investment in collaboration to address shared climate challenges. Learn more about the total investments in Mediterranean bioregions!

  • MCAP’s “Mini Sprints” Initiative embodies the Partnership’s core goal – translating collaboration across Mediterranean bioregions and sectors into real project implementation.

    Early findings from MCAP’s “Mini Sprints” Project Acceleration point to two clear outcomes:

    1️⃣ The Mini Sprints model motivates regional governments to act, drawing new institutional and philanthropic investment toward climate adaptation.

    2️⃣ It brings multiple sectors and levels of government together to test and scale climate innovations on-the-ground across Mediterranean bioregions.

    To date, the Mini Sprints have mobilized funding from philanthropy and participating regions to support quick, high-impact pilots across the Mediterranean network. Recent results include:

     • Extreme Heat: Advancing Metropolitan Santiago’s Urban and Rural Heat Monitoring Platform, now recognized as a delivery priority by the Regional Extreme Heat Roundtable of national ministries and public services.
    • Wildfire: Coordinating 14 agencies from the Western Cape, Catalonia, California, and Metropolitan Santiago to co-design a unified wildfire information system and launch a cross-regional working group.
    • Drought: Installing 120 artificial wetlands in the Western Cape’s Hartenbos estuary to improve water quality and stream flow, with results expected in the next project cycle.

    These pilots show how well-supported, cooperative action can unlock new investment and lay the groundwork for larger-scale resilience projects. The Mini Sprints demonstrate that regional cooperation and project delivery are not separate goals — they are one and the same.

    📄 Read more about MCAP’s Mini Sprints and early findings: https://www.medclimate.org/mini-sprint-project-acceleration

    #MCAP #COP30 #ClimateAction #MediterraneanClimate #Implementation #ResilientRegions #SubnationalLeadership

Social Media Accounts

Below are official accounts to tag or reference for the MCAP Secretariat and member regions.

MCAP on LinkedIn

Visit MCAP’s LinkedIn page and click “follow” to get the latest updates!

1

Once you are following the page, members can add an MCAP Member Region Affiliation.

Under “Experience” click “Add position”

2

Add “Member Region” as Title and select “Mediterranean Climate Action Partnership (MCAP)” as Company/Organization (which will pop automatically once you start typing)