As Daring Cities 2020 drew to a close, the work lay ahead for cities, towns and regions around the world to continue driving innovative climate action to achieve their bold climate targets.
This session provides an overview of the upcoming global milestones on the roadmap toward our climate-friendly, resilient future, focusing on the opportunities for local and regional governments to directly engage in and benefit from these processes.
High-level representatives of the three Rio Conventions address the criticality of this moment for all levels of government to take bold and decisive action to protect the climate, nature and land, and emphasize the role that cities, towns and regions in particular have in championing ambitious action in these fields.
A panel of local and regional governments each spearheading the way forward further elaborate on the importance of concerted local action, and highlight the next steps that they are taking, and how others can join them, in the months and year to follow.
Mami Mizutori, Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Disaster Risk Reduction and Head of the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction, announces the launch of the Making Cities Resilient 2030 Initiative and highlights how cities can benefit from this initiative in further building their own climate resilience capacities.
Master of Ceremony
- Marina Ponti, Director, SDG Action Campaign
Welcome Remarks
- Ashok Sridharan, Mayor, City of Bonn, Germany; President, ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability
Towards COP26
- Sergio Costa, Minister of the Environment, Italy ; Host of UNFCCC PreCOP26
- Alok Sharma, Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, Government of the United Kingdom; UK COP26 President-Designate
Towards a New Deal for Nature
- Ibrahim Thiaw, Under-Secretary-General, United Nations; Executive Secretary, United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD)
- Elizabeth Maruma Mrema, Executive Secretary, Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD)
- Valerie Plante, Mayor, City of Montreal, Canada; ICLEI Global Ambassador for Local Biodiversity
Beyond Daring Cities 2020 – Blueprint for Urban Leaders Taking on the Climate Emergency
- Gino Van Begin, Secretary General, ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability
Stakeholders Response to Daring Cities – The Role of Civil Society and Public Enforcement
- Farhana Yamin, lawyer/activist, Camden Think&Do
- Craig Segall, Assistant Chief Counsel, California Air Resources Board, USA
Daring Cities and Regions Spearheading the Way Forward
- Pudence Rubingisa, Mayor, City of Kigali, Rwanda
- Katrin Stjernfeldt Jammeh, Mayor, City of Malmö, Sweden
- Mami Mizutori, Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Disaster Risk Reduction; Head, United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR)
- Special announcement: Susan Aitken, Mayor, City of Glasgow, UK
Closing Remarks
- Gino Van Begin, Secretary General, ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability