COP26 EU Side Event: “Nature for Climate & Biodiversity in Cities: entrepreneurship, co-creation and engagement”
3 November 2021 (15:30-16:30 CET, 2:30-3:30 Glasgow time)
Organisers and partners
The session is jointly organized by representatives of three Horizon 2020 consortia (INTERLACE, CONEXUS and Connecting Nature), including the Glasgow City Council, Ecologic Institute and Social Climate, as well as FIDIC, the International Federation of Consulting Engineers.
Key partners include IUCN Europe, UNEP, City of Bogotá, Municipality of Granollers, University of Sheffield, and Florys.
Event description and rationale
Nature-based solutions -NbS- are crucial for cities to jointly address the climate and biodiversity crises, while creating quality green jobs and wellbeing for local communities. This COP26 EU Side Event features different sector practitioners (policy makers, entrepreneurs, international organizations) delivering inspiring presentations and engaging in a panel discussion highlighting a variety of perspectives on key challenges, opportunities and pathways to mainstream urban NbS and boost local economies.
Thus, the core questions guiding the event are:
- How do we bring more nature into cities to achieve climate and biodiversity goals?
- How can we meaningfully engage civil society and business (entrepreneurs and SMEs in particular) to this end?
- How can they work together with local governments to enact adequate policy?
- What are the key opportunities, challenges and pathways to mainstream urban NbS?
Objectives and outcomes
So, the specific objectives and outcomes of the event and work it showcases are:
- Raise awareness on the multiple benefits of NbS in cities, in terms of climate mitigation and adaptation, biodiversity, quality green jobs, human health and wellbeing → Fact-based list of benefits NbS provide to natural ecosystems and human societies
- Engage civil society in supporting, co-designing and co-managing NbS → Innovative projects to engage the general public
- Empower social entrepreneurs contributing to and leveraging NbS for job creation and quality of life → Incubation and acceleration programs for nature-based enterprises
- Foster a multi-stakeholder dialogue and co-creation of city-wide strategies and policies for NbS uptake → Methods to facilitate dialogue and co-creation
- Facilitate translocal exchange of good practices on NbS through collaborative networks of cities → Existing best practices from participating cities
- Mainstream NbS in cities and boost their local economies as a result of all of the above → Recommendations for action for all key stakeholders
Session plan
Time (CET) | Session |
15:30-15:37 | Opening remarks + Sandra Naumann – Ecologic Institute, H2020 INTERLACE + Sean Vincent Kelly – Glasgow City Council, H2020 Connecting Nature |
15:37-15:57 | Practitioners presentations + Elle Steele – Florys & Glasgow’s Nature-based Accelerator: entrepreneur + Jesus Iglesias – Social Climate: EU Climate Pact Ambassador + Xavier Romero – Municipality of Granollers: Environmental officer + Robert SPENCER, Vice-Chair SDC / Idriss Kathrada, Member SDC – FIDIC (International Federation of Consulting Engineers) |
15:57 -16:27 | High-level panel discussion +Carolina Urrutia – City of Bogotá: Secretary of Environment, Mayor’s Office + Martina Otto – UNEP: Head, Cities Unit, & Head of Secretariat, Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction + Chantal van Ham – IUCN Europe: Acting Director, EU Programme Manager NbS, Focal point for local & regional authorities + Kit England – Glasgow City Council: Green Economy Manager + Moderator: Tom Wild – University of Sheffield, Principal Investigator, H2020 CONEXUS |
16:27-16:30 | Closing remarks Sandra Naumann – Ecologic Institute, Coordinator of H2020 INTERLACE |