Advancing Climate-Resilient and Low Carbon Development in Asian Cities through Transformative Actions

The side event will showcase transformative approaches and initiatives being carried out across various spectrums of Asian cities and regions to support, scale up, and monitor climate action and implementation central to the New Urban Agenda and the SDGs. Increasing climate vulnerability, resource constraint and growing carbon footprint have put much pressure on Asian cities and regions to take on the call to develop more sustainable, holistic and transformative solutions. The session aims to present concrete approaches and initiatives, explore key platforms for city-to-city collaboration, and understand key implementation issues towards building climate-resilience and enhancing low carbon urban pathways in Asian cities and regions. The session will bring together local champions, ICLEI and its partner organizations to discuss, among others, the following key initiatives: the IKI-supported regional project 'Ambitious City Promises: Commitments for Lowu2010Carbon Urban Development in Southeast Asian Large Cities'; the CDIA's programs to link cities with financing; multistakeholder engagement initiatives of the Asia Climate Change Consortium (ACCC); and ICLEI's Carbonn climate registry mitigation & adaptation reporting platform (cCR). The session will put emphasis on the following crossu2010cutting issues to support and scale up climate action and implementation in cities: (a) multilevel governance, (b) mainstreaming gender equity in the urban climate programs, (c) innovative financing mechanisms for cities, and (d) reporting and monitoring of cities' climate initiatives. By bringing together stakeholders from the global, regional, national and local levels, the session aims to facilitate dialogue and knowledge exchange, promote strategic partnerships, and increase political commitment to scale up climate action and implementation in rapidly urbanizing Asia.