Virtual Forum

As COP30 and NDC 3.0 approach, communities are stepping up through the Town Hall COP Initiative: a locally-driven model ensuring climate action is locally-led and nationally relevant. This Daring Cities session explores how community dialogues can influence national priorities. Hear insights from the first six Town Hall COPs, including South Africa's experience, and learn about a new tool - a National Engagement Letter - to connect local action to national planning.

9 July 2025, 10:00 CEST

Inspired by leading European cities in green finance and sustainability, such as the City of Malmö, Sweden, this webinar aims to present an initiative that provides local and regional governments, municipalities, and other stakeholders with the tools, knowledge, and support needed to explore innovative financing solutions for climate action and resilience. By joining this webinar, participants can learn about a global network committed to creating transformative, sustainable solutions for communities worldwide.

16 July 2025, 13:00 CEST

This session dives into the work of ICLEI Africa through the UNA and INTERACT-Bio projects, highlighting how multistakeholder dialogues and vertical integration strengthen national climate action. It features the Freetown dialogue, which connects Local Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans with Sierra Leone’s National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan. It also highlights collaborative efforts in Tanzania with the President’s Office. Together, these examples demonstrate how local leadership, biodiversity, and nature-based solutions drive impactful and coordinated climate responses.

24 July 2025, 10:00 CEST

In 2022, climate-related impacts displaced a record 32.6 million people worldwide, including more than 3 million in the United States. As climate-driven migration accelerates, cities are emerging as key actors, recognizing the need to integrate “climate mobility planning” into their broader development strategies. This session explores how communities are preparing to support displaced residents in their long-term recovery after climate disasters, and how municipalities can better prepare to support growing numbers of individuals, families, and businesses relocating in search of lower climate risk.

30 July 2025, 17:00 - 18:00 CEST

Local governments in Asia are innovating on the frontlines of climate-induced disasters, often with limited resources but bold, equitable approaches that aim to address sectoral vulnerabilities. This session spotlights local leaders from Philippines, Indonesia, Nepal, and Bangladesh who are advancing inclusive resilience building. It will explore how these efforts can be enabled, scaled, and aligned with NAPs, NDCs, and the SDGs, in the process building stronger national climate plans through vertical integration and multilevel collaboration.

7 August 2025

More information available soon.

This session will introduce the upcoming Reuse Guidebook for Cities, developed by ICLEI, launching this August, which offers practical guidance, best practices, and key considerations on social equity and gender in reuse systems. Drawing on lessons from cities already reducing waste through innovative reuse initiatives, the session highlights actionable strategies for urban transformation, with insights from the Circular City Labs (CCL) project – Testing reusable packaging systems in cities, implemented by GIZ on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), and funded through the BMZ Initiative for Climate and Environmental Protection (IKU).

27 August 2025, 16:00 - 17:00 CEST

With presentations from city practitioners and dynamic breakout discussions, this workshop offers practical, hands-on guidance to help make municipal climate subsidy programs more socially just. Insights will be structured along key steps: 1) program outline, including goal setting and co-creation with target groups; 2) program design, with concrete recommendations to distribute funds more equitably and enhance accessibility of the program; 3) program roll out and communication, with reflections on inclusive application processes.

4 September 2025, 16:00 - 17:30 CEST

The energy transition isn’t waiting on new technology—it’s waiting on investment and financing. As the demand for clean energy infrastructure accelerates, mobilizing large-scale financing becomes essential. This session explores how local and regional governments can strategically deploy their resources to scale up successful financing models, including blended finance, and harmonize approaches across stakeholders such as governments, industry, and financiers to achieve their sustainable energy goals.

Want your climate message to lead to real action? This session gives participants the tools to host a Town Hall COP, community event, or media presence that brings community members together. Participants will learn how to tell stories that stick, share data that resonates, and spark conversations that move people. They will also hear from communities worldwide that have hosted their own Town Hall COPs and have a chance to ask them questions in a live Q&A.

10 September 2025, 17:00 CEST

This session will explore how the EU Cities Mission is catalyzing urgent climate action, with a focus on the evolution of Climate City Contracts and their role in reinforcing national climate plans. It will highlight synergies with the Adaptation Mission, bringing in diverse regional perspectives. Key themes include the strategic use of co-benefits to unlock finance, streamline monitoring and reporting, and build stronger business cases for decarbonization projects. Participants will share experiences on how Climate City Contracts and co-benefits are advancing multilevel governance, enabling the creation of national platforms that support scalability, replication, and integrated climate planning.

17 September 2025, 15:00 CEST

The session will explore how cities around the world are aligning with national environmental plans to meet ambitious biodiversity and climate targets while fostering community wellbeing. It will showcase examples from leading cities integrating climate and biodiversity measures, particularly those in the EU Climate-neutral Cities Mission and the Berlin Urban Nature Pact. Urban Nature Plans will be highlighted as effective tools for coordinating environmental policies across sectors. In addition, the City of Quito, Ecuador, will share its experience in embedding nature-based solutions into city planning processes. The session will conclude with a participatory “futuring” activity, inviting participants to reflect on their hopes for the climate agenda 20 years into the future.

24 September 2025, 16:00-17:30 CEST