Event

CDKN Asia Country Director, Ali T Sheikh, joined colleagues from around the world to use the Rio+20 conference as an opportunity to highlight best practices on climate compatible development from Asia. At an official side-event on 21 June, CDKN hosted a high-level debate on Climate compatible development for sustainability and climate security. The debate focused on climate-induced threats to human security, including threats to water, energy and food on which we depend, and the threat of human conflict due to scarcity of these resources. Increasing insecurity as a result of climate change imposes unacceptable economic costs at national, community and household levels; social and cultural costs (including unequal burden on women and indigenous people), and at its worst, loss of health and life. Panelists included Manuel Pulgar-Vidal, Minister of Environment, Peru, and Carlos Nobre, Ministry of Science and Technology, Brazil, who agreed that if we invest in climate compatible development now, we will avoid climate-related insecurity in the future. CDKN also hosted a panel discussion on mainstreaming climate change into sustainable urban planning panel at the IIED Fair Ideas Conference on June 17, where CDKN shared its experiences of integrating climate change adaptation and mitigation into sustainable urban planning, drawing on lessons from its project to reduce climate vulnerability in Cartagena, Colombia, and other places. The discussion focused on three questions:

· What do we know about cities’ vulnerability to climate change, and what are the gaps in our knowledge?

· What are some of the best ways of cultivating stakeholder understanding and buy-in to the urban resilience agenda?

· What type of research, technical assistance, governance innovation, and knowledge-sharing would assist municipal decision-makers in building climate resilience?