Championing resilient infrastructure at COP 25 with SIWI, Arup and other partners

The Resilience Shift is participating at the 25^th United Nations Climate Change Conference, the Conference of Parties known as COP 25, that takes place from 2 – 13 December 2019. Grantees and partners who will be there including Arup and the Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI).

Our partner and grantee SIWI is convening several events at the COP and will be launching related policy briefings (see below) on how we are together translating priorities to build urban resilience and adapt to climate change into tangible practical outcomes, and on identifying opportunities and the role of resilient water management in the transformation towards meeting the Paris Agreement Goal.

The Resilience Shift, with its partners, is highlighting its work on urban water resilience in particular around the City Water Resilience Approach, and other relevant work on critical infrastructure resilience.

Cities are on the front line of the consequences of climate change. Building resilience at city and municipal levels and adapting to the threat of climate change are becoming higher priorities on urban agendas but translating these priorities into tangible and practical actions remains a challenge. The Resilience Shift’s work on urban water resilience, and in particular around the City Water Resilience Approach, contributes to that translation from priority to action, and it will be highlighting this work, as well as other relevant work on critical infrastructure resilience, at COP 25.

WHO TO CONTACT: 

Individuals present who can be contacted about this work on urban water resilience and the related City Water Resilience Approach include Martin Shouler and Louise Ellis from Arup, representing the Resilience Shift, and Jennifer Jun, Maggie White and Viktor Sundman from SIWI.

EVENTS TO LOOK OUT FOR:

The Resilience Shift is also supporting the following events spearheading the importance of infrastructure resilience (see daily programme).

SIWI POLICY BRIEFINGS:

Accelerating climate action: building resilient cities through improved water governance.

This first policy brief recognises that cities face significant hurdles in building resilience, including a lack of guidance on how to turn the concept of resilience into reality.

It calls for stronger water governance, saying “Whilst water acts as a connector across sectors and stakeholders in an urban system, water governance is the ultimate catalyst and driver to enhancing resilience.”

“Given the uncertainty of climate change and its impacts on cities, building the adaptive capacity of cities through water governance is becoming even more critical.”

The briefing highlights that no one solution fits all, but a shared vision and a holistic, multi-stakeholder approach to urban water resilience is needed to understand the interconnectedness of the urban water system and set the way forward.

It highlights the City Water Resilience Approach developed by Arup and SIWI with the support of the Resilience Shift and other partners, as a key opportunity to drive change and action to achieve urban water resilience.

Implementing the Paris Agreement through Water Solutions

This second policy brief focuses on several key articles of the Paris Agreement, and describes, through several recommendations, how water can be enabler and connector to meeting the goals set out in the Agreement.

Two further policy briefings issued by SIWI include:

Source-to-sea management is key to climate security

Managing the forest water nexus: opportunities for climate change mitigation and adaptation.

Follow COP 25 proceedings at its livestream.

Read more:  adaptation, COP25, policy, resilience, SDGs