The how of urban transformations - Unveiling successful models of inclusive climate action and a toolbox for replication

Join us to interact with urban transformation orchestrators, including researchers, practitioners, community leaders and policymakers, gaining inspiration and knowledge to drive inclusive climate action in your city.

Flavia Guerra

Facilitator

November 6, 2024 | 10:30 - 11:30

Urban Library - room A

United Nations University - Institute for Environment and Human Security UNU-EHS

Germany

English

Reference:

UL-A 9

WUF12

Urban Library

Summary

In this event, the United Nations University - Institute for Environment and Human Security (UNU-EHS) and partners will unveil groundbreaking insights and tools for urban sustainability developed under the Transformative Urban Coalitions (TUC) project. We will showcase diverse transformation journeys of cities in the majority world through our new publications: TUC Urban Lab Profiles and Frontrunner Cities. Learnings from these cases were fed into the innovative "Periferia Viva" policy program from the Brazilian Government, which will also be presented.

TUC Profiles is a series of short reports highlighting key challenges and opportunities to foster sustainable urban development through inclusive climate action in Latin American cities, namely Buenos Aires (Argentina), Recife and Teresina (Brazil), and León and Naucalpan (Mexico). The first edition in 2022, TUC City Profiles, presented each city and the contextual factors that may enable or hinder urban transformations. The latest edition, TUC Urban Lab Profiles, launches in 2024 and delves into the progress, hurdles and achievements of the Urban Labs established in these cities in 2021. Lab representatives from Argentina and Mexico will tell their story as a testament to the power of collective action and innovation, inspiring others to drive change.

Also launching in 2024, the IIED's Frontrunner Cities entails case studies from practitioners in Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Honduras and Sierra Leone that explore how integrating climate action and social justice can trigger more sustainable urban development pathways.

The focus of the event will be on distilling and validating lessons learned from the ongoing transformation processes and introducing the underlying toolbox. The session will begin by outlining the overarching framework in which these materials were created, including their participatory design and linkages. Subsequently, the materials will be briefly presented, followed by a discussion with the audience on how they can be effectively used by various stakeholders for catalyzing transformative change towards sustainability in different contexts.

Objectives

The main intended aims and outcomes of the event are as follows:
- Present evidence of urban transformation: Share new publications and jointly identify lessons of successful transformations towards more sustainable urban development models, to broaden understanding of what sustainable cities for all could look like and how to achieve them through more inclusive climate action;
- Disseminate an action-oriented toolbox: Foster capacities to catalyze replication of successful climate action initiatives and enable broader transformations to achieve sustainability across urban systems;
- Inspire dialogue, collaboration and replication: Unlocking the potential of local stakeholders to drive sustainability transformations through participatory governance approaches such as Urban Labs, the inclusion of diverse perspectives and knowledges and co-created innovative solutions.