As part of COP24, the 24th United Nations Climate Change Conference taking place this week and next in Katowice (Poland), ICLEI alongside local and regional governments, will share outcomes from the Cities and Regions Talanoa Dialogues and present the work our Members are undertaking towards achieving ambitious, multi-level climate action.

In Europe, we work closely with our Member cities on a number of European projects to forward this agenda through concrete actions and by fostering knowledge exchange between cities and experts. To share inspiring examples from these projects, ICLEI is organising three sessions in the EU pavilion:

• 8 December 2018, 12:30-14:00, “Nature-based solutions and multi-level governance for carbon-neutral and resilient cities and regions”, co-organised with the Ecologic Institute
• 11 December 2018, 14:30-16:00: “Methods and measures for strategic urban resilience planning and implementation in Europe”
• 11 December 2018, 16:30-18:00: “Smart cities, Smart finance” in cooperation with Climate-KIC and the Thuringian Minister of Environment, Energy and Nature Conservation

The first event will address questions around the implementation and governance framework of nature-based solutions (NBS). This debate will bring research, practice and policy experts together for a lively discussion, drawing on insights from multiple Horizon 2020 research projects and experiences from European cities and regions on improved multi-level governance for climate and energy that focuses on exploiting NBS’ potential for climate mitigation and adaptation.

The second session will bring together city representatives from Wroclaw (Poland) and Mannheim (Germany) and Elena Višnar Malinovská, Head of Adaptation Unit DG CLIMA, EU Commission to discuss strategic resilience planning in European cities and the strategies at local, regional and European level that are driving forward urban climate adaptation and resilience.

Urban resilience experts will also join the session to share how scientists can support local governments for citizen-focused climate resilience planning and implementation. ICLEI will discuss the role of international cooperation for urban resilience.

The third session will look at smart cities and their funding mechanisms. Smart technologies have proven to have the potential to accelerate energy transition, but cities that want to adopt new smart solutions often struggle. This session aims at identifying barriers and solutions for cities willing to implement smart technologies in a climate change context and will discuss the need for integration of funding streams.

ICLEI Member Barcelona (Spain) will discuss their experience of becoming a “smart city” while the Minister of Environment, Energy and Nature Conservation, Thuringia (Germany), will talk about the role of regions in supporting this process.

For more information and to see the full list of events taking place in the EU pavilion, click here.