Side event: Local Resilience to climate change and COVID-19 – No one left behind in urban resilience building

The year 2022 marks the 75th anniversary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe while the world enters an uprecedented global crisis with severe impacts across the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals. With eight years remaining to achieve the 2030 Agenda in this Decade of Action, the COVID-19 pandemic compels a dual focus on ensuaring a resilient recovery and accelerating progress on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The Geneva Declaration of Mayors stresses the commitment Mayors are taking in increasing the cities’ Resilience: the ability to anticipate, manage and recover from any future emergency, be it a pandemic, extreme and changing climate, or a disaster arising from natural or man-made hazards. 

Cities around the world are battling the Covid-19 pandemic against a backdrop of various shocks, pressures, and rising vulnerabilities, all while attempting to prioritise justice, economy, and climate action in their recovery strategies. Progress on sustainable development must be re-energized in the face of the worst global economic crisis in nearly a century. Now is the time for national and municipal governments to re-establish themselves as stronger, fairer, and more environmentally friendly than before. 

Finally, this side event will examine how cities responses are reducing the impacts of COVID-19, especially socio-economic impacts, to sustain the gains realized on the 2030 Agenda. It will also showcase how national responses can achieve synergies to accelerate a resilient recovery for the SDGs in the Decade of Action. 

The side event will discuss the road ahead to 2030 and how local and regional governments responses can integrate urban resilience measures that respond to double challenges many now face as a result of climate change and COVID-19 socio-economic impacts. 

The side event is co-organized by the UNECE’s Housing and Land Management Unit, UN-Habitat and the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR).