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Date: Tuesday, 13 December 2022                  Time: 13:15 - 14:45 pm EST (90 minutes)     

Side event to: UN Biodiversity Conference (COP15/COP-MOP10/COP-MOP4)

Event Language: English & Spanish                

Format: in-person, live online broadcast (register here)

Organized by: UN Environment Programme       

Location: Room 514B - Shilin, Palais des Congrès, Montreal, Canada

In partnership with: SEforALL, ICLEI, C40, WRI, RMI, Mission Innovation, WWF

Contribution to: Cool Coalition, UrbanShift, UN Decade of Ecosystem Restoration

Description

City life is becoming the default human experience. While being engines for development, exchange and opportunity, cities and their expected growth are also exacerbating some of the world’s most serious environmental challenges, including rising temperatures, biodiversity loss and land use change. Cities will have to handle increasing climate risks: by 2050, 1.6 billion city residents will face extreme heat and by 2100, cities around the world could warm by 4°C on average, exposing the growing urban population to conditions that will damage human health, productivity, and quality of life.

To make peace with nature and beat the rising heat, we need to design and redesign our urban environments with nature in mind. The good news is that protecting and restoring natural ecosystems can help improve quality of life in cities. Nature-based solutions can provide natural cooling, better air and water quality, and healthier communities, but the benefits and ecosystem services that biodiversity provides need to be better understood and leveraged to increase implementation and bring about change at a local and global level. 

This session will focus on the role of nature as an adaptation tool, and how national and local governments can provide access to cooling while mitigating climate risks and supporting biodiversity. The discussion will enable exchanges between global experts, countries and cities on the opportunities to catalyze restoration in the framework of urban planning. It will include announcements on cities’ commitments to the Nature for Cool Cities Challenge, and on global collaboration in the framework of the UN Decade of Ecosystem Restoration. A dedicated exchange will take place on nature financing, and on the latest efforts to track urban nature investments.

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13:15 - 13:17 - Opening & Moderation

Sharon Gil, Head a.i., Cities Unit, United Nations Environment Programme

13:17 - 13:32 - Keynotes

Dr. Marina Robles García, Secretary of the Environment, Mexico City, Mexico

Dr. Heike Henn, Director for Climate, Energy and Environment, Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), Germany

Daniella Levine Cava, Mayor of Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States (video statement)

13:32 - 14:20 - Panel Discussion: Scaling up Nature in Cities

Moderated by: Sharon Gil, UNEP

Speakers:

  • Laura Lucia Vieira Ceneviva, Green and Environment Department, Municipality of São Paulo, Brasil
  • Ji Xu, UrbanShift Country Coordinator for China, Program Coordinator, ICLEI East Asia Secretariat
  • Eric Hubbard, Senior Advisor to the Mayor and Technical Advisor for the #FreetownTheTreeTown, Freetown City Council, Sierra Leone
  • Amy Buitenhuis, Senior Manager, Urban Heat, C40
  • Ben Hartley, Principal Specialist, Energy Efficiency and Cooling, SEforALL

14:20 - 14:35- Questions and Answers

If time permits, a moderated Q&A will take place between panelists and the audience.

14:35-14:45- Closing & Next Steps

Gregor Robertson, Global Ambassador, Global Covenant of Mayors, Former Mayor of Vancouver, Canada

Sharon Gil, Head a.i., Cities Unit, United Nations Environment Programme

 

Session - COP15: Greener cities, cooler planet, healthier people: unleashing the power of urban nature:

- part one 

- part two 

- part three