Resilience Rising Consortium at COP27: Driving the agenda on resilience

Over the course of two weeks at COP27 in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, the Resilience Rising Consortium, including the International Coalition for Sustainable Infrastructure (ICSI) and Resilience First, worked alongside key partners and changemakers in the climate and resilience space to drive the resilience agenda at COP. Learn more about the sessions we led and participated in – and some exciting new announcements – below. 

COP27 RESILIENCE HUB

Resilience Rising is proud to be a Managing Partner of the Resilience Hub, the main pavilion for climate resilience and adaptation at COP, and the official home of the Race to Resilience, the UN-backed global campaign representing over 1,500 non-state actors. The Resilience Hub aims to place locally-informed, equitable resilience solutions for people and nature at the heart of the COP process, motivated by the urgent need to increase the level of ambition and investment given to resilience – particularly for groups on the frontlines of the climate crisis. 

At COP27, more than 70 private and public sector organisations worked together to co-deliver key aspects of the Hub. With 70+ sessions across 12 days, hundreds of experts, performers, artists and activists drove conversations around crucial resilience and adaptation issues, including loss and damage, biodiversity and habitat loss, and preserving culture and heritage, to name a few. Thousands of people visited the Hub in person and more than 5,000 people from around the world participated online in the Hub’s virtual platform. Watch sessions and highlights here and check out photos from an exciting two weeks.


ANNOUNCEMENTS ON URBAN CLIMATE ACTION

Launch of the Summary for Urban Policymakers of the IPCC’s AR6 Report

At COP27, Resilience Rising and global partners launched the Summary for Urban Policymakers (SUP), a three-report compendium distilling the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) AR6 Assessment Reports in accessible and targeted summaries to help inform action at the city scale. The SUP initiative has convened IPCC report authors acting in an independent capacity with local government officials and business leaders to build an understanding around the need to move swiftly to prioritize urgent transformation and radical collaboration. At the launch event, Resilience Rising CEO Seth Schultz spoke alongside contributing IPCC authors, and city and private sector leaders. 

Following the launch of the first three SUP reports (Volumes I-III), the SUP partners, led by Resilience Rising, also released a stand-alone Action Agenda which captures the key findings from the SUP volumes, but goes beyond the SUP Series and the foundational IPCC reports, to include inputs from city and business leaders gathered through a series of regional convenings. 


ANNOUNCING NEW BREAKTHROUGHS FOR MARITIME AND PORT RESILIENCE 

Launch of the Maritime Resilience Breakthroughs Innovation Lab

During an event in the Ocean Pavilion, Resilience Rising and partners Arup, Lloyd’s Register Foundation, Lloyd’s Register Group and the UN High-level Climate Champions launched the Maritime Resilience Breakthroughs to mobilise coordinated action to enhance the resilience of ports so that people, communities and supply chains remain connected, through targeted solutions for infrastructure, natural environment and workforce focussed actions. Through Resilience Rising’s First Innovation Lab, Maritime Resilience Breakthroughs: Resilience4Ports we aim to build a community of partners to evaluate, co-create and test solutions which can be scaled up. Learn more here. And read more on the push to create a resilient and sustainable maritime sector in this thought leadership piece from CEO Seth Schultz.


DRIVING THE CONVERSATION AROUND RESILIENT INFRASTRUCTURE

Resilience Rising Consortium member International Coalition for Sustainable Infrastructure (ICSI) organized a number of sessions in the Resilience Hub and in the Action Zone with the aim of moving the needle on embedding resilience and sustainability in the infrastructure lifecycle.

Addressing Innovation Barriers in Energy and Mobility Entrepreneurship: Innovative business models and initiatives to scale up markets

This session considered opportunities and barriers in energy and mobility entrepreneurship and looked at how business models, financing, technology and policy can support entrepreneurship. It also showcased some initiatives in the energy and mobility space that are leading the way. Watch a recording of the session here.

Tackling cascading risks, losses and damages in heavily interconnected systems

This interactive session facilitated a conversation on how the systemic nature and interconnectedness of risks can be addressed to build safer, more resilient infrastructure systems. The presentations highlighted numerous tools and methodologies available for governments and institutions to assess interdependency and cascading risks for infrastructure. Watch a recording of the session here.

Cartoon by Rohan Chakravarty

From Gray to Green: Integrating nature-based solutions in the infrastructure lifecycle

Making a strong case for nature-based solutions (NbS) requires a consideration of their whole lifecycle, from concept planning to design and implementation, all the way through to operations and maintenance. This session showcased real-world examples of planning, delivery, and management of NbS, with a focus on building the business case, implementing hybrid solutions, and their long-term operation and maintenance. Watch a recording of the session here.

Marrakech Partnership Implementation Lab: Engineering the vision for climate resilient transport

This session convened transport experts from the global engineering community to explore how transport infrastructure can be made resilient to climate hazards through the adoption of new technology, design, and materials. Participants shared current best practices and available solutions from their local context, and shared their thoughts on how to operationalise this resilience and adaptation outcome target.

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