Daring Cities second edition is taking place in October 2021

The largest online gathering on climate change is getting ready to tackle the crisis

Daring Cities 2021 is here. The largest online gathering of the urban community on the topic of the climate emergency is getting ready for its second edition. The Global Virtual Forum will take place on 4-8 October of this year.

ICLEI - Local Governments for Sustainability and the Federal City of Bonn are organizing the action-oriented forum that aims to showcase and empower local government actors to tackle climate change.

The program will feature 20 sessions including strategic high-level dialogues and hands-on training for policymakers and practitioners. By knowing more, urban leaders can act better in setting and achieving science-based climate action targets, closing the science-policy disparity.

Mayors and other decision-makers, technical staff, researchers, private sector representatives, and community organizers will showcase their examples of effective climate action. At the same time, the idea behind the forum is for them to build connections and expedite the roll-out of solutions to the climate catastrophe.

Building on the past to empower the future

Daring Cities is focused on building on the successes of the past to give way for the future. This includes last year’s edition but also the previous ten years of climate forums this one is the successor to. We are talking about the Resilient Cities Congresses, held in Bonn from 2010 to 2019.

Resilient Cities gathered urban practitioners, policymakers and researchers working in urban resilience and climate change adaptation. It built an active, informed, and committed community and played a key role in mainstreaming urban resilience in global agreements and processes.

The same can be said for Daring Cities 2020. Here are some of the key conclusions from that event:

ICLEI’s Climate Neutrality Framework – guidelines for integrated action on helping cities from all over the world achieve climate neutrality through a drastic reduction in greenhouse emissions, divesting and reinvesting, and compensation for emissions that cannot be avoided.

Launch of Making Cities Resilient 2030 – one-of-a-kind platform that will synergize action and partner different localities combined into 5 world regions.

EcoLogistics Principles – ICLEI set out 8 principles for cities to follow in their mission to make urban freight logistics more people-centred, climate-neutral and efficient.

Green City Finance Directory – Projects need reliable access to funds, which is why this directory was launched to help administrations have an easier time in the planning stages. They will be able to use online resources called project preparation facilities (PPFs) to find connections to financing.

Voluntary Local Review on the SDGs – The host city of Bonn demonstrated its self-auditing programme that uses indicators and trend patterns to regularly verify progress on the implementation of the UN Agenda 2030.