CDKN is delighted to be a partner of ICLEI-Local Governments for Sustainability and a supporter of Resilient Cities 2016. This year, we will be exhibiting throughout the three days of the conference in Bonn, Germany - 6-8 July 2016 - and we will be leading a side event on Public-Private-Community Partnerships.

For more details, view the conference programme.

Thursday 7 July 2016; 11:00-12:30

Gustav Stresemann Institut, Bonn, Germany

The Paris Agreement sets the bar high for ambitious action to limit average global warming to well below two degrees, while the Sustainable Development Goals commit countries to eradicating poverty and pursuing a just, secure and sustainable future for the world’s people, including through the development of urban resilience.

2016 is the year of Habitat III and intensified focus on city-level action, as well as the year when governments from national to local level will begin moving forward with the implementation of the Intended Nationally Determined Contributions submitted to the UNFCCC at COP21 in Paris. Increasing the scope of stakeholder engagement and support for low-carbon, climate-resilient development will be critical to this effort. It will include mobilizing finance from the private sector and a range of resources by individuals and communities for climate resilient and low emission (i.e. climate compatible) investments.

This highly interactive panel and discussion session convened by the Climate and Development Knowledge Network (CDKN) and ICLEI will focus on how to create an enabling environment for private sector as well as community and citizen-level engagement in climate-compatible development. Taking in a wide range of experience from CDKN and ICLEI projects in developing countries, panelists and audience members will explore some of the strategies that have been successfully deployed to forge Public Private Community Partnerships for renewable energy development, low carbon transport systems and sustainable coastal management, as well as for taking adaptive actions to reduce ‘urban risk traps’ caused by repeated small-scale weather and climate disasters.

This session will draw upon the first-hand experience of CDKN, ICLEI, and city partners in coastal Belize; in Pakistan’s industrial heartland, and in Bogor, Indonesia. It will also share the findings of a comparative research project that looked at a range of incentive schemes for attracting private and community investment in energy efficiency, renewables and climate-proofing in cities.

The discussions will explore the different stakeholder engagement tactics that have succeeded in:

• overcoming any initial reluctance on the part of public and private sector investors and so resulting in new streams of revenue for climate-smart development; and
• tapping into local knowledge and in-kind resources for designing and implementing climate compatible development projects.

There will be a particular focus on CDKN and ICLEI partners’ experiences in moving from planning to implementation.

Facilitators:

Mairi Dupar, CDKN and Barbara Anton, ICLEI

Speakers:

Ari Huhtala, CDKN - the global challenge of urban resilience

Hammad Raza, CDKN - industrial sector, Sialkot City, Pakistan

Nadia Bood, WWF - coastal tourism, Belize

Ranell Dedicatoria, ICLEI -  sustainable transport, Bogor, Indonesia

Daniel Ryan, FARN - political economy of climate action in Latin American megacities

Lisa Junghans, comparative research on city climate finance

Outcomes

By the end of the discussion, we expect that participants will:

• Be better able to match adaptation and mitigation aspirations with local development and private sector/business priorities;
• Gain an understanding of the structuring of Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Actions (NAMAs) and other forms of low-emission and climate-resilient local development strategy to incentivize private sector participation.

Guiding questions:

The discussion will address, among others, the following questions:

1. How are public and private sector actors integral to achieving low-emission, climate-resilient development goals in your city? What have been the selling points or ‘drivers’ that have incentivized their involvement in co-design of climate compatible solutions?
2. What specific stakeholder engagement tactics and, where applicable, tax and regulatory mechanisms have been deployed to attract private investors?
3. To what extent have knowledge, time, funds and in-kind resources been mobilized from community representatives, civil society groups, businesses, and other stakeholder groups? What role has this engagement played in successful programme delivery?
4. In the planning process, have stakeholders identified how taking action on climate adaptation or mitigation can provide wider development benefits (eg, income, quality of life, health benefits)? Did this co-benefit framing help to gain the support of different interest groups? How important is the economic case for action – and how can it best be communicated?
5. What does it take to replicate successful approaches to climate compatible development, at scale?