The session will present the recent update on the initiative of UN-Habitat related to Climate Action. It will elaborate on the global climate challenges experienced on the planet, and current actions on advocacy, capacity-building and research. The session is organised by ISOCARP in cooperation with UN-Habitat. 

The world is going through unprecedented climate change that is placing considerable stress on our societies and the environment. From shifting weather patterns that threaten food production to rising sea levels that increase the risk of catastrophic flooding, the impacts of climate change are global in scope and unprecedented in scale. Human settlements emit a substantial portion of the world's greenhouse gases (GHGs) and are home to concentrated populations that are highly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. Rapid urbanization is transforming places, populations, economies, and the built environment at an exceptional speed and scale. This transformation is occurring throughout the world, and it is accelerating in many places, generating increasingly large urban conurbations and agglomerations. In that context of urgency, the urban and territorial planners, as well as the climate change communities, acknowledge their critical role and responsibility in tackling the future of cities. They realise the urgent need to take sustainable pathways towards addressing climate change in their practice. Urban form-compactness, density, mixed land use, and integration of infrastructure especially transportation-is a key strategy for reducing human-generated climate change.

A Global Collaboration of Planners for Climate Action 

Planners for climate action is a global collaboration to promote the value and contribution of better planning to sustainable cities facing the impacts of climate change. By working together across the globe we share leading practice and knowledge on: 

• Mainstreaming climate change mitigation and adaptation into land-use planning 
• Supporting integrated approaches to planning and multiple scales of intervention that incorporate climate change 
• Compact urban form that integrates land use infrastructure and mobility
• Cultural heritage conservation including adaptive re-use and infill development using patterns established by historic cities and towns-ICOMOS has a Climate Action Mobilisation effort to align with P4CA
• Promoting a climate-friendly built urban environment, both new development as well as redevelopment, at different territorial scales 
• Also promoting participatory, bottom-up approaches to planning 
• Embracing when possible nature-based approaches to building climate resilience, green infrastructure and planning 
• Improving the profession of planning, as well as planning education and research, through collaborative approaches.

Programme

11:30 | Welcome and introduction

• Didier Vancutsem, moderator Secretary General ISOCARP

11:45 | The P4CA and the Climate Resilience for the urban Poor initiatives of UN-Habitat

•  Shipra Narang Suri, Director Urban Planning and Design Branch UN-Habitat, Nairobi

12:00 Roundtable discussion

Global experiences in implementation – The ARCADIS experience

• Bert Smolders, urban planner Shelter Program, ARCADIS International

 Implementation of SDGs in Europe Governance and Policies

• Nicolas Gharbi, Urban Planning OfficerEU Commission DG Urban, Brussels

Urban Planning experiences in Middle-East – New towns in Egypt

• François Menguelé, GIZ GmbH, Coordinator, Urban Development Cluster (UDC), Cairo

Climate action in Chinese cities – the state of the art 

• Shi Nan, Secretary General UPSC, Urban Planning Society of China

12:30 | Podium Discussion + Interaction with the public

• Speakers + Moderator

13.00 | Conclusion and wrap-up

• Didier Vancutsem ISOCARP