Building Resilient Cities: The role of urban nature-based solutions for climate change mitigation and adaptation.

*Closed for registrations*

The future of the world’s population is urban.

Urbanization rates are rapidly increasing worldwide, compounding climate risks and exacerbating vulnerabilities in cities.

In the  Global South, the fast urbanization only further pressure existing infrastructure and hinder local government’s capacity to plan for climate-change resilient development at landscape levels and in the long run. 

While being hit hard by the impacts of the climate crisis, cities are also key contributors to the causes of these impacts. Implementation of urban nature-based solutions to enhance cities’ adaptive capacity to climate change while pursuing mitigation strategies to lower emissions is urgently needed.

As such, local governments and key stakeholders’ ability to plan, fundraise, implement, and continue to develop strategies for climate-resilient urban infrastructure is key, even more so when considering the rise of socio-economic urban inequality and informal settlements.

As cities continue to grow, nature-based solutions can support climate change mitigation and adaptation. But we need to understand, what can (and can’t) be expected from nature-based solutions when thinking, planning, and living inside ever-growing cities.

To further dive into these points, the Danish Nature-based Solutions Knowledge Platform invites a broad array of stakeholders and actors from the NGO, private, and public sectors, including governmental agencies and academia, for a half-day seminar that will explore how nature-based solutions can support and add value to urban resilient development in light of climate change and rapid urbanization.

Objectives

• To bring together key stakeholders working with urban development in Denmark and worldwide and allow for a meaningful technical exchange on the topic of urban nature-based solutions.
• To improve understanding of nature-based solutions value added for cities’ climate mitigation and adaptation strategies, particularly in light of fast-paced urbanization rates and climate change.
• To improve the coordination and foster collaboration across major actors to enhance understanding, funding, scale, and implementation of nature-based solutions inside cities.

Guiding Questions

1. With cities already experiencing the impacts of climate change and being increasingly exposed to climate vulnerabilities, what can be expected of nature-based solutions as a strategy for climate adaptation and mitigation? What are the main trade-offs and benefits for urban nature-based solutions?
2. What are the main barriers impeding the implementation of nature-based solutions at scale within cities? How can such barriers be overcome?
3. What are the different ways that cities in the global south and global north already implement nature-based solutions and what knowledge can be transferred between them?
4. How can urban nature-based solutions support climate justice and equitable human development?

Speakers

Welcome:

• John Christensen, Director of the UNEP Copenhagen Climate Centre
• Mette Annelie Rasmussen, The event’s Moderator and UNEP-CCC Head of Communications

Part I – Climate change and NbS inside urban areas: Different context, similar stressors.

• Mirey Atallah (virtual), Chief of the Adaptation and Resilience Branch, Climate Change Division
• Sharon Gill (virtual),Programme Management Officer and Cities Lead, Cities Unit, Climate Change Division
• Henry Neufeldt, Head of Section, Impact Assessment and Adaptation UNEP-CCC
• Marília Israel (virtual) Regional Coordinator for Biodiversity and Resilience, ICLEI Brazil
• Julia Rocha Romero, UNEP-CCC Project Officer for Climate Policy, Mitigation Analysis, and Data Management Section
• Dora Almassy, UNEP-CCC Nature-based Solutions Specialist, Impact Assessment and Adaptation Analysis Section

 Part II: Panel Debate – Looking ahead and thinking at landscape levels

Panelists:

• Lykke Leonardsen Head of program for Resilient and Sustainable City Solutions at City of Copenhagen/ C40 Cities
• Kasia Wieszczeczynska,Phd Candidate University of Southern Denmark
• Niels Lund, Vice President, Climate Change & Health at Novo Nordisk
• Talat Munshi Senior Advisor at UNEP-CCC

Moderator: Henry Neufeldt

An agenda will be circulated with all registered participants closer to the event.

Relevant Materials: 

United Nations World Urbanization Prospects: The 2018 Revision  (2019

UN Sustainable Development Goal 11: Sustainable cities and communities

UNEP: Nature-based Solutions for climate change mitigation (2021)

IPCC AR6 WGII on Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability (2022) (see Chapter 6)

UNEP Adaptation Gap Report (2020) (see Chapter 6)