Date: 23 February 2022 Time: 12:30-18:30 EAT
Context
Cities are hubs of innovation and opportunity that connect people and ideas. While we may currently see cities as centers of biodiversity loss and pollution, characterized by areas vulnerable to negative climate change impacts, it does not always have to be so. It is in cities that humanity can start to truly ‘make peace with nature’, where we can come together to design and redesign the way we live and manage our urban infrastructure with nature in mind.
The second UNEA Cities Summit challenges us to ‘flip the script’ and see cities as champions of nature, and accelerators of a sustainable future. Experts and city practitioners spoke about a range of topics to help us rethink our cities through strategies such as early integration of biodiversity considerations in city planning and management, adapting to changing geoclimatic and cultural conditions, and making a strong financial case that quantifies multiple benefits of nature-based solutions in cities.
Objectives
The second UNEA Cities Summit showcased the multiple benefits of nature for cities, for tackling the triple planetary crises of climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution, and zoomed in on key levers from local to global actions, from policy to finance measures to accelerate implementation.
It was hosted under the umbrella of the Fifth session of the United Nations Environment Assembly “Strengthening Actions for Nature to Achieve the Sustainable Development Goals”, the framework of the UN Decade on Ecosystems Restoration, and the Edinburgh Process under the CBD.
Organizing Partners
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