Co-pilots
- ICLEI and partners tbc
Summary
This session will provide a space to explore and highlight the linkages between the biodiversity and climate crises and contribute to positioning nature at the Climate Chance Summit Africa 2019 – Accra, Ghana centre of the climate change debate, not only as a crisis in its own right, but also as the potential solution to the increasing negative effects of the current climate change trajectory on our urban livelihoods and wellbeing.
The session will comprise a diverse panel of speakers, as per the proposal below, to share their knowledge and work on nature based solutions for climate resilience. The structure of the session will be participatory in that questions and discussion from participants will be welcomed and encouraged after each speaker’s inputs. The
strategic curation of content, through the various speaker presentations, will steer the discussion, and provoke possibilities for achieving climate resilience targets in line with the UN’s vision of “Living in Harmony with Nature” by 2050. The roadmap to 2020, and the global discussions around shaping the “New Deal for Nature” through commitments and ambitions at the local and subnational level will be discussed, with the ground-breaking CitiesWithNature partnership initiative, co-founded and co-designed by ICLEI, the IUCN, and The Nature Conservancy (TNC), being showcased in the keynote address as the mechanism through which local and subnational government contributions, and all other actions at the this scale, will be coordinated, as officially endorsed by the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (SCBD). CitiesWithNature is growing and nurturing a global network of individuals, researchers, practitioners, communities, partners, and local and subnational governments who are all dedicated to restoring urban nature and connecting, learning, sharing, and inspiring each other to act in ways that have the potential to ignite a global movement for positive change and transformation, with huge dividends in the fight against climate change and the dependent health, wellbeing, and resilience of humans, ecosystems, and cities. Collective action is urgently needed to reap these benefits. The session will thus issue an urgent call to action and invite all participants to join the journey. In essence, nature will be emphasized as the best and most effective solution to achieving climate resilience, specifically in urban areas, and support for biodiversity and ecosystem restoration will be inspired.