High-level Meeting of the Baku Continuity Coalition on Urban Climate Action and Sustainable Urbanisation

High-level Meeting of Baku Continuity Coalition on Urban Climate Action and Sustainable Urbanisation advances the mandate of the Baku Continuity Coalition on Urban Climate Action (BCC), established at COP29 in alignment with the Multisectoral Action Pathways (MAP) Declaration on Sustainable and Healthy Cities as a legacy initiative of the Azerbaijani Presidency. The BCC was signed at the 3rd Ministerial Meeting on Urbanization and Climate Change at COP29 by urban development and housing ministers from the four COP host countries: Egypt-COP27; United Arab Emirates-COP28; Azerbaijan-COP29; and Brazil-COP30 and is facilitated by UN-Habitat. The BCC addresses gaps in urban climate governance by promoting continuity, alignment between COP and WUF processes, and sustained multistakeholder coordination across policy cycles. Ahead of WUF13, BCC held meetings at the UN-Habitat Assembly in Nairobi and COP30 in Belém, to explore expanded collaboration, resulting in interest to include former WUF and COP host cities to institutionalize continuity across global policy cycles. The High-level Meeting of the BCC on Urban Climate Action and Sustainable Urbanisation within WUF13 represents a further step in consolidating this architecture. It involves an expanded group of eleven countries - Kenya, Spain, Canada, China, Italy, Colombia, Ecuador, Malaysia, Poland, Türkiye, and Ethiopia - reflecting past, current, and future engagement across the Habitat, WUF, and COP cycles. The meeting seeks to operationalize continuity in urban climate governance, identify priorities for sustained COP-WUF coordination, and advance the BCC toward a permanent dialogue platform. With housing as a central theme, discussions focus on how aligned governance, policies, and financing can support resilient, inclusive, and affordable urban housing, drawing on lessons from Egypt, UAE, Türkiye, Brazil, and Azerbaijan, and fostering shared learning for long-term implementation. The meeting also supports preparations for a joint communiqué and the establishment of the Baku International Continuity Dialogue on Climate and Urban Development, envisioned as a standing platform integrated with National Urban Forum processes. In doing so, it reinforces the contribution of the World Urban Forum to the implementation of the New Urban Agenda and broader global sustainable development commitments, while positioning continuity as a core enabling condition for effective urban climate governance.