The COP27 Presidency of Egypt supports sustainable, just urban transformation through an initiative on Sustainable Cities

Originaly published on the COP27 Presidency website.

Partners and experts, from the urban and the climate communities discussed concepts and mechanisms to reach more sustainable cities in the Sustainable Cities Initiative Workshop, hosted by the COP27 Presidency of Egypt in collaboration with The United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) and facilitated by ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability.

The workshop included a fruitful discussion among various partners and experts, city leaders and networks, including Ambassador Ayman Tharwat Amin, Deputy Director of the Department of Climate, Environment and Sustainable Development, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Egypt, Erfan Ali, UN-Habitat Regional Representative for the Arab states, and Kobie Brand, Deputy Secretary General and Regional Director for Africa, ICLEI.

In his opening remarks, Ambassador Ayman Tharwat Amin, highlighted the participatory and the inclusive approach that the COP27 is adopting in developing initiatives on the way to Sharm Eel-Sheikh., hHee further emphasized that cities, their population and infrastructure are especially vulnerable to the adverse impacts of climate change, which highlights the importance of this initiative and the need for an implementation-focused COP.

“This year, local climate action is one of UN-Habitat’s priority themes,” Ali stated. “COP27 in Sharm El-Sheikh will be a great opportunity to highlight and advance the local climate action agenda and strengthen the alignment of climate action with sustainable urban development.”

Participants contributed to the framework of the initiative, highlighting the need to bridge global policy to city actions and supporting city governments in building their capacity to improve climate change mitigation, adaptation and resilience.

A number of action points were drafted during the workshop, including:

1. Creating a partnership for a sustainable cities initiative to be launched during COP27;

2. Identified initial workstreams for the initiative including, energy efficiency, resilient and low carbon buildings, waste, urban mobility and urban water management;

3. Setting guidelines for the interaction of the private sector, and other stakeholders with the initiative.