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IMPACT AREA 7
Advocating for the collective voice of cities
Despite being on the frontline of biodiversity and climate challenges, local governments are often excluded from global decision-making. Their efforts go unrecognised, and their needs are not reflected in international agendas and frameworks.
The UNA project helped elevate the voice and ambition of cities on the global stage in addressing nature and biodiversity loss. The project supports alignment with frameworks like the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework and connects cities to platforms like CitiesWithNature. This visibility enabled cities to influence policy, access resources and strengthen cooperation between national and subnational levels, ensuring local leadership is embedded in global sustainability efforts.
7a
Recognising cities as centres of innovation
Cities are powerful engines of growth. They offer an opportunity to both develop and implement innovative solutions to humanity’s most complex challenges. Through ICLEI’s Cities Biodiversity Centre, the UNA project supported global knowledge exchange by engaging in side events across the Convention on Biological Diversity’s (CBD) Conference of the Parties, as well as events and Regional Climate Weeks hosted by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). These platforms created opportunities to amplify and advocate for the collective voice of local and regional governments in negotiations and implementation mechanisms.
7b
Scaling action and knowledge through CitiesWithNature
CitiesWithNature is an interactive platform recognised by the CBD as a commitment and reporting platform for cities to support the implementation of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework and National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans (NBSAPs). This platform enables cities to demonstrate leadership in aligning local actions with global biodiversity goals, access insights to improve policies and measure impact over time through thematic communities of practice. The platform also ensures that local efforts are reflected in CBD reporting and global reviews, elevating the voice of local and subnational governments on the global stage.
Case study
CitiesWithNature: Linking local action to global goals
Through its partnership with ICLEI’s Cities Biodiversity Centre, the UNA project connected cities to the CitiesWithNature Action platform – an official CBD-recognised space for reporting local biodiversity action. By joining CitiesWithNature, cities can align their efforts with the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework and contribute to national and global reporting.
UNA cities also benefit from an active community of practice on NbS hosted on the platform, offering a space for online engagement, networking and shared learning beyond the project lifespan.
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