Daring Cities 2024

Powering collective action to respond to the climate emergency

Under the theme “Powering collective action to respond to the climate emergency,” Daring Cities 2024, co-convened by ICLEI and the Federal City of Bonn, aims to serve as a pivotal platform for advancing multilevel and collective climate action through a holistic and integrated approach.

Daring Cities 2024 marks the fifth iteration of the annual event, building on the legacy established since its inception in 2020. Our agenda is packed with dialogues, workshops, and high-level roundtables throughout the year, all aimed at promoting leadership, knowledge exchange, and the implementation of ambitious climate strategies towards the upcoming UNFCCC COP29 in Baku and COP30 in Belém.

This edition will facilitate in-person and online exchanges among policymakers, technical experts, and leaders from around the world to share knowledge, showcase innovative climate actions, and foster ambitious and unlikely collaborations. Daring Cities 2024 is designed to empower local and regional governments to become leaders in climate action, advocating for integrated solutions that address the interconnected challenges of the climate emergency, biodiversity loss, and urban resilience.

Daring Cities is organized in alignment with the ICLEI equity guidelines, click here for more information.

Mayor of Bonn Katja Dörner – Welcome to Daring Cities 2024

Check out our upcoming events here!

Engagement and Convergence

As Daring Cities 2024 unfolds, participants will engage in a series of dialogues, workshops, and high-level roundtables designed to bridge gaps between national and subnational climate actions. The event’s structure, built around the Know-Act-Lead approach, aims to elevate the discourse on climate action by providing a platform for sharing cutting-edge research, best practices, and innovative solutions. Key sessions will focus on the implementation of the Coalition for High Ambition Multilevel Partnerships (CHAMP) initiative for Climate Action, exploring ways to enhance collaboration across government levels and sectors, and identifying pathways for integrating local actions into national and international climate agendas.

Daring Cities 2024 is:

Powering multilevel climate action

Highlighting the importance of the CHAMP initiative launched at UNFCCC COP28, Daring Cities 2024 focuses on fostering collaboration between national and subnational governments to accelerate climate action. This initiative underscores the event’s commitment to bridging gaps and ensuring effective strategies are in place for the submission of enhanced Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) by UNFCCC COP30.

Daring Cities 2024 is:

Advancing a holistic approach to climate emergency

Emphasizing the theme of addressing the climate emergency through integrated and holistic solutions, Daring Cities 2024 is dedicated to exploring interconnected factors such as food and nature, within urban policies. This approach ensures comprehensive outcomes for society and the planet.

Daring Cities 2024 is:

Connecting global climate agendas with local action

By aligning with the outcomes of major UN conferences in the past, such as the UNFCCC COP28, and planning for CBD COP16, UNCCD COP16, UNFCCC COP29 and COP30, Daring Cities 2024 serves as a critical platform for local governments to understand and engage with global climate processes, enhancing their role in achieving international climate goals.

Daring Cities 2024 is:

Fostering unlikely connections for climate solutions

Recognizing the need for innovative collaborations, Daring Cities 2024 seeks to create spaces for unlikely and unusual connections within the climate action sphere. By bringing together actors from various policy areas and sectors, the event encourages the sharing of diverse perspectives and experiences, aiming to unlock new pathways for addressing the climate emergency.

Daring Cities 2024 is:

A community that is tackling the climate emergency starting at home

Daring Cities is a community for diverse stakeholders to inform local, subnational and national efforts, as well as global processes by strengthening partnerships, building capacity and enhancing knowledge exchange to activate climate emergency response.
Daring Cities is creating a vision of what we want our cities, towns and regions to look like by 2030.

The solutions for the climate crisis exist. We need leadership and support to execute on them. Daring Cities is the spark to ignite a multilevel response to the climate emergency.

Cornerstones

The framework of Daring Cities 2024 is anchored in the three pivotal cornerstones of Reflect, Exchange, and Advocate. “Reflect” serves as the foundation, facilitating a period of introspection and assessment of past climate actions and outcomes, particularly those of UNFCCC COP28, to ensure a seamless transition into the current year’s initiatives. 

The “Exchange” cornerstone focuses on fostering dialogues and sharing insights across local and regional governments, technical experts, and policymakers, emphasizing the importance of multilevel collaboration and the dissemination of cutting-edge knowledge and effective climate action practices. 

Lastly, “Advocate” extends the reach of Daring Cities 2024 beyond its immediate community, empowering representatives to carry the event’s key messages into wider arenas, including major international environmental conferences, with efforts culminating at UNFCCC COP29. This phase of advocacy is critical for influencing and integrating local/regional climate action into national and global agendas.

Guidelines

Code of conduct & anti-harassment policy

ICLEI is committed to providing a safe event experience for everyone, regardless of sex, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, disability, race, ethnicity, religion (or lack thereof), social status, physical appearance or body size. With this purpose a code of conduct, which participants will need to adhere to at the time of registration, and an anti-harassment policy will be established and implemented in all ICLEI global events.

These policies can be adapted for specific events, since some procedures may differ depending on the event’s nature (hybrid, in-person, virtual), size, or local context. Learn more about ICLEI global events’ anti-harassment policy here.

Any events hosted by an ICLEI partner may have their own code of conduct and anti-harassment policy, which all participants including moderators, speakers, and ICLEI staff involved in the organization might have to adhere to.

Equitable events guidelines

ICLEI events are a platform for meaningful dialogue and exchange about today’s sustainability challenges which help advance collective commitments and significant action towards local sustainability in cities, towns, and regions worldwide. Whether our events are hosted in person, virtually, or through a hybrid model, we aim to integrate sustainable, inclusive and equitable design wherever possible. An equitable event is intended to actively promote inclusion and participation. This involves ensuring physical and virtual access and accessibility to the event, diversity of topics and voices as well as an overall good quality experience for all. It also means being prepared to protect everyone who participates in the event against all forms of abuse, harassment, and discrimination. Learn more about ICLEI’s equitable events guidelines here.