Securing Resilient Urban Futures - Transforming Housing Systems to Tackle the Triple Planetary Crisis

The Networking Event explores the Housing-Climate Nexus by bridging the gap between high-level digital systems, ecosystem-based strategies, and grassroots community resilience. As the built environment accounts for 34% of global CO2 emissions and faces escalating climate risks, housing must transition from a vulnerability to a catalyst for the "Triple Planetary Crisis" solution. The session is structured around the UNDP "HANDS ON" Urban Resilience programme, which accelerates action through Heat, Aqua, Nature-based, and Digital Solutions: • Framework (Ronald Jackson, UNDP): Introduction to the "HANDS ON" approach for accelerating urban resilience. • Nature (Cecilia Aipira, UNEP [woman panelist]): Expert insights on integrating Nature-based Solutions (NbS) into housing policy to safeguard biodiversity and enhance climate adaptation. • Digital (Academician Wu Zhiqiang, Tongji University): Showcasing AI-driven spatial planning to optimize the 60% of buildings yet to be constructed by 2050. • Heat & Energy (Dr. Mashale, EMPA, Zurich [woman panelist]): Demonstrating micro-scale energy systems and low-carbon materials as the "building blocks" of decarbonized housing. • Aqua & Practice (Jamaican Practitioner): A frontline account of post-Hurricane Melissa reconstruction, illustrating how local wisdom validates technological and ecological models. • Polycare (private sector entity – woman panelist] -- cost-efficient and climate-resilient substitute for conventional bricks to improve performance and durability of housing in the face of heat stress, flooding, extreme weather conditions, particularly in vulnerable urban areas.