Convention on Climate Change
Cities can recalibrate the world
Cities can recalibrate the world
With more and more people moving to cities every year, scaling the solutions that cities are implementing today can build a resilient future for billions
Local governments worldwide are leading the transition to clean energy, increasing access to basic services, improving public health and enhancing the resilience of communities.
COP28 offers cities an opportunity to showcase their successes, share their knowledge, and advocate for more funding and influence policy.
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Global goals. Local implementation.
We represent 100 cities building resilience and advancing urban transformations across the world.
Together, we help build the political environment for climate action.
R-Cities COP28 Key Messages
Energy Resilience
- Building energy resilience is an opportunity to reshape our urban systems and economies to provide for all urban residents and encourage cleaner, greener, and more resilient urban living.
- When cities change their energy systems, they can make energy cheaper and more accessible, and reduce their carbon emissions.
- Affordable, reliable, and abundant urban power unlocks paths to prosperity and can improve the quality of life of 55% of urban residents living in slum-like conditions without access to reliable electricity
- Urban Power Solutions in cities:
- Enable a community – focused energy transition.
- Activate local economies
- Create Green jobs for all members of society.
Water Resilience
- Water is vital for life and for building resilient cities. Investing in urban water resilience is a strategic action that protects our communities against natural hazards like drought, floods, and rising sea levels while simultaneously offering a pathway to urban transformation.
- Urban water action:
- Positions water as a key driver for sustainable development and climate action.
- Ensures access to clean drinking water and sanitation services for everyone.
- Supports healthy biodiversity.
- Improves risk assessment and planning for water-related shocks
- By analyzing water through a resilience lens, a city becomes aware of its interconnected role with urban systems and its wide-ranging impact on communities. This approach transforms water into an opportunity to transition to a sustainable future, stimulating economic activity, decreasing emissions, improving public health, and protecting urban biodiversity.
Community Resilience
- Equity builds resilience. Shocks and stresses disproportionately affect unrepresented communities facing vulnerabilities. Community resilience can be significantly enhanced by conscientiously nurturing and interweaving the social, physical, natural, and financial capital of communities.
- By knowing how communities perceive risk and what barriers make them more prone to risk, local governments gain a deeper understanding of what actions and solutions help them become more resilient.
- The intensifying effects of climate change are deeply connected to the health and well-being of communities, especially, communities facing vulnerabilities.
- Building community resilience means that everyone, regardless of their background, has equal access to resources and opportunities to adapt, recover, and thrive in the face of climate disasters and other challenges.
Cities Speed Up Change
Together with policymakers and funders, we can collectively power change by investing in city resilience projects. As centers of innovation and economic growth, cities generate over 80% of the world’s GDP. They are also responsible for 70% of all GHG emissions and home to widening inequality.This dual nature of cities makes them ideal catalysts for change.
Urban action unlocks new opportunities to address challenges on a global scale.
Our Urban Resilience Leaders
Ahmed Aboutaleb
Mayor City of Rotterdam
Beam Furr
Vice Mayor of Broward County
Daniel Stander
Deputy Chair Board of Directors Resilient Cities Network
Dr. Folayinka Dania
Chief Resilience Officer Lagos State Resilience Office
Eduardo Paes
Mayor City of Rio de Janeiro
Gareth Morgan
Executive Director of the Future Planning and Resilience Directorate at the City of Cape Town
Jennifer Jurado
Chief Resilience Officer Broward County
Katrin Bruebach
Global Director of Programs and Delivery Resilient Cities Network
Lauren Sorkin
Executive Director
Resilient Cities Network
Lynette Lim
Global Director of Communications and Knowledge Resilient Cities Network
Marvin Rees
Mayor City of Bristol
Priya Zachariah
Chief Resilience and Sustainability Officer Houston
Susan Aitken
City Council Leader, Glasgow
Taina de Paula
Secretary of Environment and Climate Rio de Janeiro
Roos Meilink
Chief Resilience Officer The Hague
Our Events
| Date & Time 2nd December 2023 8:00 – 9:30 |
Details High-level roundtable: The Heat is On: Mitigating the health impacts of climate change in underserved communities |
Speaker Lauren Sorkin |
Location Goals House |
| Date & Time 2nd December 2023 11:00 – 12:30 |
Details Urban Waters – Global Knowledge Exchange |
Speaker Lauren Sorkin |
Location Water Pavilion |
| Date & Time 2nd December 2023 13:15 – 14:00 |
Details Building Climate Resilience: Financing Solutions |
Speaker Lauren Sorkin |
Location SMI, Green Zone |
| Date & Time 2nd December 2023 19:30 – 23:00 |
Details Unlocking Financing for Urban Resilience and Energy Transition |
Speaker Lauren Sorkin |
Location – |
| Date & Time 3rd December 2023 11:00 – 12:00 |
Details Reasons for Optimism: Cities’ action on climate and health |
Speaker Multiple speakers |
Location UK Pavilion |
| Date & Time 4th December 2023 19:30 – 23:00 |
Details Fin-Erth+ MSCI Women in Climate Dinner |
Speaker Lauren Sorkin |
Location Soul Kitchen |
| Date & Time 5th December 2023 15:00 – 16:00 |
Details Co-producing Equitable Cities: Catalysts for Just Climate Action |
Speaker Lauren Sorkin Gareth Morgan Taina de Paula |
Location Resilience Hub |
| Date & Time 6th December 2023 8:30 – 10:30 |
Details Uniting and Energizing Cities for a Resilient Future |
Speaker Multiple speakers |
Location |
| Date & Time 6th December 2023 9:30 – 12:30 |
Details Ministerial Meeting on Urbanization and Climate Change |
Speaker Multiple speakers |
Location Plenary 2 – Al Ghafat |
| Date & Time 6th December 2023 13:30 – 14:30 |
Details Climate, Housing and Health: How to Build Inclusive and Equitable Urban Resilience. |
Speaker Lauren Sorkin, Dr. Folayinka Dania |
Location Resilience Hub |
| Date & Time 6th December 2023 15:30 – 16:30 |
Details Multilevel Roundtable on Urban Water Resilience |
Speaker Gareth Morgan, Ahmed Aboutaleb Taina de Paula |
Location Presidency Roundtable, Blue Zone |
| Date & Time 6th December 2023 17:30 – 18:30 |
Details Launch of Sharm El-Sheikh Adaptation Agenda Working Group on Urban Water Resilience |
Speaker Katrin Bruebach |
Location Water Pavilion |
| Date & Time 6th December 2023 18:00 – 22:00 |
Details Justified | Aligning a fair transition with sustainable development ambitions |
Speaker Lauren Sorkin |
Location SEE Institute |
| Date & Time 7th December 2023 9:00 – 18:00 |
Details World Climate Action Summit – Investment COP |
Speaker Multiple speakers |
Location Conorad |
| Date & Time 7th December 2023 15.00 – 18.00 |
Details Climate Action Every Day |
Speaker Multiple speakers |
Location Olea Restaurant |
| Date & Time 8th December 2023 15:30-16:30 |
Details Securing the Global Food Supply Chain |
Speaker Dr. Folayinka Dania |
Location – |
| Date & Time 9th December 2023 15:00 – 16:30 |
Details Extreme conditions and Resilient Cities: How are urban centers adapting? |
Speaker Katrin Bruebach |
Location Green Zone |
| Date & Time 10th December 2023 10:00 – 13:30 |
Details Challenges and opportunities for addressing the dimensions of food security |
Speaker Roos Meilink |
Location Spanish Government Pavilion |
| Date & Time 10th December 2023 11:30 – 13:30 |
Details Accelerating Urban Resilience: Innovative Finance for Urban Water Utilities |
Speaker Katrin Bruebach |
Location Presidency RoundtablePresidency Roundtable |