On Climate Emergency Leadership Day, the City of Bonn is celebrating the achievements and legacy of being Germany´s UN City, hosting numerous UN institutions.
Over these past 25 years, in addition to being recognized as one of the leading UN hubs for sustainability, the City of Bonn also championed global UN advocacy of local and regional governments through active engagement and has achieved remarkable outcomes at UN Conferences. Among these conferences are: the UN conference on desertification in 1999, on renewable energy in 2004, on biodiversity in 2008, on climate change in 2017, as well as at the annual Global Festival of Action and annual trainings for UN leaders and staff, to name a few.
Starting in 2010, ICLEI and the City of Bonn also hosted the annual Resilient Cities Congress, connecting local leaders and experts with global institutions on climate and sustainability. Through its ambitious plans on climate emergency, climate neutrality, disaster risk reduction, and biodiversity conservation, as well as its pioneering adoption of the Voluntary Local Review on Sustainable Development Goals in Germany, the City of Bonn has also demonstrated how global visions are transformed into local action.
The 25 year jubilee of the UN’s presence in Bonn coincides with the reform of the UN system and with UN-wide consultations on fostering more robust engagement with local and regional governments as a means to support the vision of inclusive multilateralism.
Speakers
- Oliver Hillel, Programme Officer, Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (SCBD)
- Ambassador Dr. Rainer Lassig, Head of Liaison Office, Federal Foreign Office, Germany
- Katja Dörner, Mayor, City of Bonn, Germany; ICLEI Global Executive Committee Member & Co-Chair on Climate and Low Emissions Portfolio
- Shipra Narang Suri, Chief, Urban Practices Branch, UN-Habitat
- Dmitry Mariyasin, Deputy Executive Secretary, United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE)
- Francesca Racioppi, Head of Office, WHO European Centre for Environment and Health