Our world is on life support. Climate science shows we must make deep, civilization-wide changes by 2030 to limit a planetary catastrophe. This is a matter of survival, particularly for the most at-risk, but increasingly for every place and population on earth.
In 2022, some areas in the world hit record high temperatures and are suffering drought and wildfires while others are faced with flash floods. We are already living in a world where climate change-induced natural disasters are creating devastating impacts for our communities and ecosystems and unmanageable financial costs for local and regional governments.
International crises like the COVID-19 pandemic and Russian-Ukraine war have stalled broad-based, swift action to appropriately respond to the climate emergency but the urgency of our situation remains.
This session addresses the critical moment the world finds itself in responding effectively and urgently to the climate emergency. Cities, towns and regions continue to find themselves on the front-line of this global crisis, yet they cannot tackle it alone. High-level discussants present their views on the state of the climate emergency and what they see as the best courses of action that all levels of government need to take to address the most pressing challenges head-on.
- Yunus Arikan(Speaker)ICLEI World Secretariat, Director of Global Advocacy
- Frank Cownie(Speaker)Mayor, City of Des Moines, USA, President, ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability
- Brigid Shea(Speaker)Chair of ICLEI USA Board, Commissioner of Travis County, Texas, USA
- Delroy Williams(Speaker)ICLEI Mexico, Central America & Caribbean Regional Executive Committee Member, Mayor, City of Kingston, Jamaica
- Célestine Ketcha Courtès(Speaker)Government of Cameroon, Minister of Housing and Urban Development
- Margaret Hender(Speaker)CEDAMIA (derived from Climate Emergency Declaration and Mobilisation In Action, Co-founder
- Hitesh Vaidya(Speaker)National Institute of Urban Affairs (NIUA), India, Director
- Francisco Canal(Speaker)Ministry of the Environment, Colombia, Vice Minister for Environmental Planning