Background Europeans are starting to experience the tangible impacts of global warming first hand, for example through heat waves, floods, storms and forest fires. The European Union currently has a target of limiting global warming to no more than two degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial global temperature. EU policy is based on the findings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), and on findings relating to the economic costs of climate change as analysed in reports such as the Stern Review. Local and regional authorities are well placed to fight climate change by developing and implementing integrated climate strategies, within the scope of their responsibility and through citizen involvement. Doing this effectively requires a highly integrated approach by local and regional authorities. However, few local and sub-regional authorities have sufficiently integrated structures in place. The EU's Thematic Strategy on the Urban Environment (TSUE) states that integrated environmental management can meet the needs of local and regional authorities, but that its implementation requires extensive training and capacity-building. Objectives The objectives of the CHAMP project were as follows: To establish an Integrated Management Systems (IMS) competence development package to enable the local level to contribute to EU environmental and climate change commitments; To create national hubs that through IMS implementation will support local and sub-regional authorities in their efforts to contribute to greenhouse gas emission reductions; To build awareness of IMS as an effective instrument for national authorities, EMAS (Eco-Management and Audit Scheme) competent bodies, EMAS auditors, sub-regional and local authorities, and people working to tackle climate change; and To demonstrate low-carbon footprint project management and to launch an IMS network and thus secure the continuation of the processes started by the project. Results The focus of the 'CHAMP' project was to support capacity development among local and sub-regional authorities to combat climate change through an integrated management system (IMS) and on the basis of these experiences to produce a comprehensive hands-on capacity development package (CDP) for authorities, trainers and auditors on IMS for climate change. The project successfully developed the proposed CDP, which is available in full English, Finnish, German, Italian, Hungarian and Swedish language versions via the project website at: http://www.localmanagement.eu/index.php/cdp:home:en. Selected parts of the dissemination material are also available in Spanish, Polish, Romanian and Serbian at the same website link. This was achieved by (i) creating national hubs to support local and sub-regional authorities in contributing to the reduction of EU greenhouse gases through the implementation of the IMS; and (ii) by raising the awareness on the IMS as an effective instrument to combat climate change among national authorities, EMAS competent bodies, EMAS auditors, sub-regional and local authorities, as well as the general public. Representatives from a total of 58 local and sub-regional authorities were trained to apply the IMS through the web-based capacity development package. This should improve the effectiveness of organisational structures for climate change mitigation and adaptation in those administrations that took part. At the beginning of the project, four national training hubs were established - in Finland, Germany, Italy and Hungary. EMAS auditors received training at the hubs on ways of including sustainability issues (especially those expressed in EU climate change related initiatives) in the EMAS certification process. By the end of the project, national training hubs were established also in Spain, Poland, Romania and England. These will continue to offer courses and work to promote sustainability after LIFE. The project also enabled further development regarding standardisation of IMS for the training of auditors in EU27+ countries on the implementation of EMAS into strategic aspects of a local/regional local authority. This included conducting four “From EMAS to IMS” case studies in the UK. In addition, the project established an EU-wide competence network on IMS. The national training hubs seek to maintain this network, dubbed the European Partnership for Integrated Sustainability Management, after LIFE, with the goal of further enhancing sustainability management within the local administrations. Overall, the success of the project was that it managed to foster good cooperation between all the partners, with their different organisational cultures and administrative contexts. It was able to create contacts and initiate sustainability work at the local/regional level in practically all EU countries and in the candidate country, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. Further information on the project can be found in the project's layman report and After-LIFE Communication Plan (see "Read more" section).