Sustainable Urbanization in the Paris Agreement: multilevel governance and finance for urban adaptation

The “Sustainable Urbanization in the Paris Agreement: a comparative review of Nationally Determined Contributions for Urban Content” report https://unhabitat.org/books/sustainable-urbanization-in-the-paris-agreement/ outlines the importance of sustainable urbanization in the implementation of the Paris agreement in conjunction with the New Urban Agenda and the Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development.
The report’s key findings include:
- centrality of urban issues, with over two thirds of submitted NDCs with specific urban content;
- prominence of adaptation focus, with over half of the NDCs with urban content focusing on adaptation;
- need to access urban financial resources, with one in three of NDCs with urban content referring to technical and finance capacity challenges.
According to these findings, the Panel will discuss about current opportunities and challenges for in financing urban adaptation. The panel will also focus on the widely observed current lack of integration of national policies with local actions and the difficulties in accessing adequate financial resources, both public and private, which are limiting significantly the ability of cities, particular small secondary and tertiary, and medium size ones, to undertake appropriate climate resilience and adaptation plans and actions.
During the side event it there will be announcement of the launching of the Global Program on Urban Climate Resilience Finance (REFIN), led by UNDP team, with invitation to join by a calling for expanding further strategic partnerships. REFIN aims at establishing and piloting a Project Development Facility to support national and local governments in developing financeable fundable urban climate resilient projects, with the objective of strengthening national and local capacities to define, finance and implement local and national urban adaptation plans; enhancing at the same time UNDP’s and partners’ capacity to support urban adaptation.
The panelists and the audience will be called to contribute identifying knowledge gaps on urban resilience, which will also inform the IPCC’s Cities and Climate Change Scientific Conference.