Conference > Around ICCA2019
Around ICCA2019
Many events related to municipal climate action took place in Heidelberg during May 2019, around the same time as ICCA2019. The Passive House Conference was held on 3 and 4 May. The Transition Towns Workshop on 20 May was a networking meeting for various initiatives.
One day before ICCA2019, on 21 May, the Climate Neighbourhood’s Youth Climate Summit brought together young people from all over the world. On the very same day, the Under2Coalition met in Heidelberg and the project Bridging European and Local Climate Action (BEACON) held its first municipal climate action conference. Cities Fit for Climate Change held their final session and the ICCA2019 associated Climate Neighbourhoods (CN) kicked off their programme with a borad offer of excursions.
On May 22, during ICCA2019, the Baden-Württemberg Municipal Climate Congress took place. Three different awards were presented, Impact Hub’s Better Together Award, an award for Energy Saving Teams from Heidelberg Schools and the “Good Energy Management” municipal competition.
The second day of the conference, 23 May, started with a morning invitation to the Mayors Breakfast, followed by the Mayors Session, both given by Heidelberg’s mayor, Prof. Dr. Eckart Würzner. As a follow up of ICCA2019, conference participants, journalists and others were able to visit good practice examples of municipal climate protection on guided tours with the Climate Neighborhoods. Energy Cities invited participants to their general assembly in the Stadthalle.
Table of contents
Partner
Climate Neighbourhoods – Let`s scale up solutions
Climate Neighbourhoods (CN) addresses participants from all over the world with the motto “Let’s scale up solutions”. Located in the heart of Heidelberg’s lively historic centre, CN’s interactive programme provides a forum for exchange between various actors from municipalities, civil society and companies actively involved in climate and environmental protection. As part of ICCA2019, CN will address the central issue of ICCA: How can vertical and horizontal collaboration lead to the intensification and dissemination of activities on climate protection and climate change adaptation? Young people in particular are actively encouraged and invited to participate with fresh ideas and innovative suggestions. The Youth Climate Summit will provide young people with their own platform, taking place before the start of the CN. The Climate Neighbourhoods will be held in English.
For more Informationen visit: Climate Neighbourhoods
Under2 Coalition
The Under2 Coalition is a group of subnational actors committed to an ambitious climate change policy. States, countries, regions and municipalities from six continents represent the coalition. They represent more than 1.3 billion people from over 40 nation states and around 43 percent of the global economy. The common working basis is a “Memorandum of Understanding” (Under2 MOU) signed by the participants, launched in 2015 in the run-up to the UN Climate Change Conference in Paris (COP21) of California and Baden-Württemberg. In the meantime, more than 220 states and regions have signed the MOU.
Website: www.under2coalition.org
Energy Cities
Energy Cities is the European Municipal Association for Energy Transition. From 2017 to 2020, the Alliance will be chaired by the city of Heidelberg with input from eleven European cities. The association, founded in 1990, now includes more than 1,000 cities and municipalities in 30 countries. The Energy Cities offices are located in Brussels, Belgium and Besançon, France. Implementing the necessary political vision and solutions requires targeted action from policymakers at all levels of government, as well as the determination and creativity of civil society.
Website: www.energy-cities.eu
Better Together Award
As an accompanying activity for ICCA 2019, GIZ has commissioned Impact Hub Berlin with implementing the international ‘Better Together Award – Collaborative Solutions for Local Climate Action’. The Better Together Award aims to support the joint activities of start-ups, NGOs or SMEs working with cities, municipalities or local governments. The Better Together Award aims for joint activities of start-ups, NGOs or SMEs on the one hand with cities, municipalities or local governments on the other.
Website: www.bettertogetheraward.org
UN Secretary General’s Climate Action Summit 2019
The world is in a race to limit climate change. To meet the urgent need to address climate change and achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement, UN Secretary-General António Guterres is convening a Summit in September 2019 to raise ambition and increase climate action. The race is on. There is still time to tackle climate change, but it will require an unprecedented effort from all sectors of society. In order to boost ambition and accelerate action to implement the Paris Agreement and the Sustainable Development Goals, the Summit will move forward in the direction of shared national policy ambitions and highlight major developments in the economy in support of the efforts. Together, these developments will send strong market and political signals and put necessary momentum into the race to the top among countries, business, cities and civil society. ICCA2019 is a milestone on the way to the UN Secretary General’s Climate Action Summit. It will serve as a key moment for the preparation of deliverables for the Summit’s Infrastructure, Cities and Local Action work stream.
Website: www.un.org/en/climatechange
CCFLA Assembly Meeting
The Cities Climate Finance Leadership Alliance (CCFLA) is an initiative to accelerate climate-aligned capital flows for cities and mainstream urban climate action worldwide. It currently counts 50 members from a diverse range of stakeholder groups (governments, public and private financial institutions, academic institutions, international organizations and networks). At present, the Alliance undergoes a reform process and the Secretariat will transition from the Global Fund for Cities Development (FMDV) to the Climate Policy Initiative (CPI). The German Federal Ministries for the Environment (BMU) and accordingly for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) have decided together with France to support the CCFLA in its reform process and financial strengthening.
The momentum at ICCA2019 was used to hold the first CCFLA Assembly Meeting under the new leadership to discuss the platform’s strategy and deliverables for the UN SG Climate Summit. The meeting took place on May 23 from 4-6pm. An official re-launch of the Alliance is planned for the Climate Action Summit in September 2019.
Website: www.citiesclimatefinance.org
Cities Fit for Climate Change
Cities Fit for Climate Change is a global project at the interface of urban development and climate change. Over the course of the last three years and with contributions by its partner cities eThekwini, Santiago de Chile and Chennai the project has generated, tested and applied knowledge and practical oriented measures towards making cities fit for climate change. The project is in its final stages and took the International Conference on Climate Action (ICCA) 2019 in the German City of Heidelberg as an opportunity to showcase the learnings and key outcomes in a concluding workshop. The objective of this event was to provide an interactive space for the key partners from Chile, South Africa, India and Germany to share their learnings and achievements with an international audience.
More information on the CFCC project can be found here.
Global NDC Conference 2019
The Global NDC Conference 2019 took place from 12 to 14 June in Berlin. The aim of the conference was to enable decision-makers and implementers to increase the speed and scale of transformative change through the implementation of Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), thereby achieving the long-term goals of the To reach Paris.
The implementation of NDCs is progressing in many parts of the world. The conference shared best practices in transformative and inclusive climate action and discuss ways to implement innovative approaches and increase national commitments.
The results of the conference serve as technical recommendations in the national and international processes surrounding the Paris Agreement Rulebook, as well as the implementation and updating of NDCs, such as the United Nations Climate Action Summit in September 2019 and the December World Climate Change Conference of 2019.
The conference key messages can be found here.
The ICCA2019 contributes to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), especially to Goal 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities) and Goal 13 (Climate Action).
Goal 11:
The target for 2030 is to ensure access to safe and affordable housing. The indicator named to measure progress toward this target is the proportion of urban population living in slums or informal settlements. Between 2000 and 2014, the proportion fell from 39 percent to 30 percent. However, the absolute number of people living in slums went from 792 million in 2000 to an estimated 880 million in 2014. Movement from rural to urban areas has accelerated as the population has grown and better housing alternatives are available.
Goal 13:
Climate change does not stop at political borders and its effects are not limited to individual policies, sectors or social groups. Against this background, a large number of actors must accompany and promote the implementation of the 2030 Agenda. These include initiatives that empower cities to implement climate change mitigation and adaptation measures.
