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UN
Global Climate Action
19
March
2024 | |
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High-Level
Champions'
Newsletter | |
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Building
a Low-Carbon, Resilient Future - Stories of
Transforming the Built Environment | |
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Welcome to the latest UN Climate
Change High-Level Champions newsletter. This month
we investigate human settlements, from the
transformation of sustainable urban development,
to boosting climate resilience and alleviating
poverty.
Our spotlight falls on Roof Over Our Heads, a
groundbreaking flagship initiative under the Race
to Resilience spearheaded by
internationally-renowned community activist,
Sheela Patel, to revolutionize informal housing,
through scaling resilient, low-carbon, and
affordable homes. Roof Over Our Heads is one of
many ambitious initiatives and organisations
active in the area of human settlements, several
of which are recognized as key partners to deliver
the 2030 Climate Solutions. We also
turn to the United Arab Emirates (UAE), where new
standards for environmental sustainability and
energy efficiency are driving the lion’s share of
the country’s decarbonisation. And we bring you
the outcomes of the first ever Buildings and Climate Global
Forum organised by the French Government and
the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) with the support of the
Global Alliance for Buildings and
Construction (GlobalABC).
Read on to learn how these
initiatives and others are shaping a new paradigm
for resilient and sustainable urban development on
a global
scale. | |
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From
Overlooked and Informal - to Recognised and
Resilient | |
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Sheela
Patel’s Vision for the Urban Poor
Over one billion people
worldwide
currently live in informal urban settlements, in
self-built homes, outside of regulatory
frameworks, without formal land tenure. These
settlements often lack basic infrastructure such
as sanitation, clean water, and electricity, with
residents also often facing the constant threat of
eviction. With three billion people estimated
to need adequate and affordable housing by
2030, and
with extreme weather increasing, the situation is
extremely urgent for many cities and rural areas,
especially those in developing countries.
To understand the
opportunity to address urban poverty, we spoke to
internationally recognised human rights
activist, Sheela Patel. Sheela outlines her vision
for the Roof Over Our Heads campaign
which is helping women leaders from informal
settlements to advance resilient, low carbon and
affordable homes and solutions for their urban
communities - thereby advancing the overall
climate resilience of their cities.
What
is the strategy behind the Roof Over Our Heads
campaign?
I
started working 50 years ago on addressing the
challenges of the poorest people living on the
sidewalks of Mumbai, which is estimated to be up
to half of the population. In examining ways to
boost the city’s resilience, we realized that
strategies and governance systems designed for the
city’s poorest people were vital to meeting the
needs of others too. We realized that we should
get back to meeting basic needs to advance the
overall resilience of cities.
Over
90 percent of all people who live informally in
the Global South - especially in Asia and Africa
- design, finance and construct their own
homes. So, many upper echelon solutions, such as
fiscal transfers, that we hear about in the world
of development never actually reach people living
informally - and similar climate adaptation
solutions won’t reach them either. To tackle this
issue we started Roof Over Our Heads,
a campaign focused on delivering resilient, low
carbon and affordable homes and improving public
infrastructure to the urban
poor. | |
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A
demonstration of the use of recycled and low cost
roofing material as part of the ROOH Lab in Surat,
India. | |
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Our
strategy is to coalesce the poorest
neighbourhoods, and city planners and construction
professionals to identify, design and finance
effective physical materials that poor women can
use to construct their homes. By making better
materials and construction systems available we
can ensure that the small amount of money that
people spend on their homes produces the most
resiliency.
In
2023, our first year, we developed a methodology
for young construction professionals to work in
the poorest neighbourhoods with a cohort of women
- to study their houses and create a minimum
standard for building materials. This enables us
to assess a wide range of materials, ranging from
clay tiles to corrugated tin metal sheeting, based
on their cost, shelf life, and other markers of
effectiveness in protecting people from extreme
weather conditions experienced in slums in
different climatic zones.
At
COP 28, global engineering and sustainable
development consultancy, Arup announced that it
would join the pilot,
by helping to expand access to affordable, carbon
neutral materials at the Rasulabad, an informal
Settlement in Surat, India. Part of Arup’s role in
the pilot is to improve housing design to boost
energy efficiency and resilience. We aim to create
one hundred such labs in about 20 countries, each
shaped to tackle critical, local challenges that
can be scaled in other
regions. | |
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The
ROOH team from Arup demonstrates the use of
discarded plastic bottles as a building material
for waterproof, insulated
homes. | |
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Why
the name - ‘Roof Over Our Heads’?
‘Roof
Over Our Heads’ comes from one of five key ‘wants’ that many women
leaders in Asia and Africa identified
during a series of knowledge-gathering
conversations. It’s an expression of women’s basic
need for security, and it also talks to the need
to adapt home building techniques and materials to
withstand climate events, from heat, wind, rain
and cyclones.
How
do you plan to scale the Roof Over Our Heads
campaign globally?
Last
year we finished 17 informal settlements in nine
cities in India and documented this in a book that was launched at COP
28.
This year, we will continue to develop further
India projects, working with local artisans and
communities to improve the resilience of homes,
using available materials, as well as finding ways
to fund new materials.
Simultaneously,
we are taking the initiative to communities in
other countries. The initiative is architected so
that the strategic team in India builds the
capacity of an anchor team in other countries -
essentially training the new trainers. The core
teams consist of community leaders, construction
professionals and NGOs. We are scaling a project
in the Philippines, as well as planning to scale
projects in East Africa, MENA, and in
Argentina.
As
we expand, we will examine where there's a spine
of solutions which are the same in different
countries, as well as learning from specific,
localized elements - and so the repertoire of
options expands. That's
the plan. It's ambitious, but it's based on our
belief that by working with a skeletal team, who
share all of their findings, we can scale
solutions rapidly to meet urgent demand. Real
scale comes from fostering exponential multiplier
effects, rather than through a linear, command and
control approach.
Have
you any examples of this scalability in
action?
Yes,
one of our India labs is focused on a community of
waste pickers in Bangalore. They collect
recyclable materials such as paper, plastic,
glass, and metal from bins, landfills, and
streets. We’re not only helping them to upgrade
their own homes with waste materials production,
but also creating an income generating activity
for them. Also, many of the materials that poor
people use for their homes are purchased from
waste pickers, so we can have a wider influence on
informal communities that they come into contact
with. Waste pickers operate within a huge network,
so through this pilot we can have a major
impact.
Through
the lab, we’re learning the importance of
relationships and trust, for example, working with
the waste picker community, who not only face
precarious conditions, health risks, but also
social stigma.
We
navigate difficult spaces such as this with a
commitment to simplicity, a lack of complications
- and by focusing on our core priority - to enable
very poor women to assess the resilience of their
homes and take action.
What
makes you optimistic that we can build a fair and
resilient world?
You
just have to meet a bunch of very poor women, and
see their ability to just carry on - and cope,
manage and nurture - to make you feel optimistic.
We talk about doom and gloom sitting in our
comfortable middle class homes. But women in
poverty face real doom and gloom every day. Some
have had to migrate to cities where they don't
know the language, living in difficult conditions
and scavenging to survive. What can they do? They
cannot just stop. They have to do something. So,
they try out different ways forward. Women like
these are thirsty to understand how to do things
differently, how they can do better for their
families. We can all draw
real inspiration from that.
Click here for the full interview
and a video recording of our conversation with
Sheela
Patel. | |
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UAE
Launches Blueprint for Sustainable Built
Environment |
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Masdar
City, Abu Dhabi - one of the world’s most
sustainable
cities. | |
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In the UAE, the buildings sector is
responsible for 27 percent of the country’s
greenhouse gas emissions, making this a critical
sector for the country’s decarbonisation. Indeed,
the UAE climate plan (NDC) includes a commitment to
reduce emissions in the building sector by 56% by
2030.
That’s why, a group of key
UAE property developers, led by the Emirates Green
Building Council (EGBC) and the UN Climate Change
High-Level-High Champion for COP 28, Her Excellency Razan
Al Mubarak, recently launched The UAE Sustainability Built
Environment Blueprint. The report maps the key
challenges facing the buildings sector and the
enablers needed for it to spearhead the UAE’s net
zero pathway, including policies and regulations;
building materials; finance; data and skills. The
blueprint, which is endorsed by the UAE Ministries
for Energy & Infrastructure and Climate Change
& Environment, has been designed to provide
the UAE and governments elsewhere with the
confidence to shape a supportive, regulatory
policy and finance environment for decarbonising
the buildings sector.
Speaking at a COP 28
meeting of the UAE Developers Leaders Group, the High-Level
Champion, said:
“The buildings and
construction sector finds itself at the nexus of
both the challenge and solution of climate change.
The partnership between business and government is
fundamental to our collective success and holds
the potential to bring about rapid and meaningful
transformation.”
Beyond the UAE, further clear
signals of change in the building sector recently
emerged, with the European Parliament voting
through the Energy Performance of Buildings
Directive. The critical new rules to reduce
energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions
from buildings provide businesses with the market
certainty to invest in the opportunities of the
transition over coming
decades. | |
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Report
Bridges the Gap between Business and the Sharm
El-Sheikh Adaptation
Agenda | |
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A
new report,
co-created by the High-Level Champions and PwC,
presents a clear pathway for business to advance
its adaptive capacity and resilience through the
Sharm El-Sheikh Adaptation
Agenda.
The
report finds that to date, action on adaptation is
lagging compared to that on mitigation, especially
in the private sector. It sets out the
opportunities for sectors ranging from food and
agriculture, health, water and nature, to human
settlements.
The
former High-Level Champion, Dr. Mahmoud Mohieldin,
who was one of the key initiators of the Sharm
El-Sheik Adaptation Agenda, said:
“COP28
built on the successes of COP27, agreeing on a
Global Goal on
Adaptation
through the adoption of ‘The UAE Framework for Global Climate
Resilience’
and operationalising the Loss and Damage Fund. We
now need to mobilise the needed action among both
governments and non-state actors to translate the
various commitments and outcomes made at COP 28
into real deliverables on the ground.”
Declaration Signed at
Buildings
and Climate Global Forum
For the first time, 70 governments
from across the globe have agreed on a plan to
address the climate impact of the building and
construction sectors. In the Declaration de Chaillot, signed at the
recent Buildings and Climate Global Forum,
ministers agreed to engage key players across the
supply chain and pledged to utilise international
forums such as the G7, G20, G77, and UNFCCC COPs
to further incorporate the specific issues of
construction and buildings.
In addition, an
‘Intergovernmental Council for Buildings and
Climate’ coordinated by the GlobalABC was established to
facilitate and monitor the implementation of the
goals of the Declaration.
In this context, it is also worth
mentioning UNEP and GlobalABC’s report on the Global Status Report for Buildings
and Construction, reviewing the policies,
technologies, and finance while monitoring the
overall alignment of the building and construction
sector with the Paris Agreement goals.
According to the
IPCC, the building and
construction sector is responsible for 21% of
global greenhouse gas emissions.
But what does
transitioning the built environment look like in
Africa where many reside in informal settlements?
How can it support the continent’s development
agenda whilst meeting the needs of an urban
population expected to rise to 1.6 billion by
2030?
We spoke to Hon.
Nasra Nanda, CEO and ESG lead at the Kenya Green
Building Society and Chair, Africa Regional
Network at the World Green Building Council. Read
the full interview here. | |
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Race
to Resilience Update:
Race
to Resilience partner initiative awarded World
Habitat Award for early- warning tool
A
weather forecasting and early warning system for
residents of informal settlements, which is known
as Developing Risk Awareness through Joint Action
(DARAJA) has been awarded a World Habitat Award for its
innovative approach to protecting vulnerable
communities.
Race to Resilience Transformation
Partner, Resurgence founded the
initiative in Kenya and Tanzania in 2008, to
provide reliable weather information in
easy-to-understand formats. The service also
encourages people to carry out repairs to their
homes and public spaces to minimize
weather-related damage. It is estimated that the
data provided by DARAJA has led to a 300% increase
in household repairs made in response to weather
forecasts in Nairobi, and a 122% increase in Dar
es Salaam.
International
Coalition for Sustainable Infrastructure launches
Advocacy Positions for Funding and
Financing Sustainable and Resilient
Infrastructure
The position paper supports the
unlocking of funding for equitable, sustainable
and resilient infrastructure across the globe;
prioritising infrastructure that delivers positive
outcomes for people and the
planet. | |
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Toolbox for accelerating
adoption and implementation of Beyond Value Chain
Mitigation
(BVCM). | |
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Do you work for a
company that is preparing to set a climate
commitment? Applications are now open for the UN
Global Compact’s Climate Ambition
Accelerator. The six-month
programme is designed to equip companies with the
knowledge and skills that they need to accelerate
progress towards setting science-based emissions
reduction targets, aligned with the 1.5℃ pathway,
setting them on a path towards net zero emissions
by 2050.
Last year’s Climate
Ambition Accelerator set a new programme record,
drawing around 1,990 participants from more than
1,000 organizations across the globe. Now in its
fourth year, the latest Accelerator offers the
guidance and tools that businesses need to
accelerate progress towards setting science-based
emissions targets and transitioning to net zero
emissions by
2050. | |
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● H.E. Razan Al Mubarak’s keynote
speech at Economist Sustainability Week on 4
March on mobilising stronger and more ambitious
global climate action through multi-level
partnerships both locally and globally.
● The
world’s largest land conference took place in Zambia
on 11-15 March. Hosted by the Global EverGreening
Alliance, the Government of Zambia, AFR100,
African Natural Capital Alliance (ANCA), FSD
Africa, and the UN Decade on Ecosystem
Restoration, the Accelerating Nature Based
Solutions Conference set out to advance nature
based solutions as a vital tool in climate action.
Until recently, the value of nature has been
unrecognised and underpriced thereby
actively
incentivising its
destruction. We spoke to Irene Ojuok, Ambassador, Global
Evergreening Alliance and specialist in FMNR
(Farmer-Managed Natural Regeneration) from the
conference about the potential of a ‘bioeconomy’
and the importance of nature-rich countries
leading the conversation.
● The
co-chairs of the Sharm el-Sheikh Mitigation Ambition
and Implementation Work Programme announced on 1 March that the
2024 global dialogues under the work programme
will focus on “Cities: buildings and
urban systems.” The High-Level Champions
have been encouraged by Parties to support the
effective participation of non-Party stakeholder
experts and financiers in the dialogues and
investment-focused events. In preparation,
non-State actors are encouraged to share their
views on opportunities, best practices, actionable
solutions, challenges and barriers, and incentives
and national policy approaches relevant to the
above topic, ideally by 31 March 2024, for the
first global dialogue and by 31 July 2024 for the
second global dialogue, respectively.
Additionally, non-State actors are also invited to
provide submissions for other workstreams,
including the New Collective Quantified Goal on
Climate Finance (NCQG), the Sharm el-Sheikh dialogue, or the
implementation of the Gender Action Plan. You can also
consult the list of all calls for submissions from COP
28.
● The
third edition of the UNEA-6 Cities and Regions Summit
was held as an associated event with the United
Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA-6), where
participants discussed various ways of boosting
multi-level governance and urban financing.
● In
a new report titled CO2 Emissions in 2023 by the
IEA, a snapshot of all energy-related emissions in
2023 has been presented. Furthermore, IEA has
published the first edition of the Clean Energy
Market Monitor; the series aims to provide a
high-level overview of the development and
deployment of clean energy
technologies. | |
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● Global Methane Forum 2024, 18-21
March, Geneva, Switzerland
● Aligning Policy Engagement with Net
Zero (a spotlight on Brazil), 19 March,
Virtual
● Launch of the Corporate Climate
Resilience Pathways: Catalyzing Private Sector
Action, 21
March, UK
● International Renewable Energy
Conference 2024, 8-12 April, Adelaide,
Australia
● 2024 Ocean Decade Conference,
10-12 April, Barcelona, Spain
● UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous
Issues, 23rd Session, 15-26 April,
New York, USA
● Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week,
16-18 April, Abu Dhabi, UAE
● World Bank and IMF Spring
Meetings, 19-21 April, Washington, D.C.,
USA
● World Energy Congress, 22-25
April, Rotterdam, Netherlands
● IEA Global Summit on People-Centred
Clean Energy Transitions, 26 April, Paris,
France
● IEA Summit on Clean Cooking in
Africa, 14 May, Paris, France
● World Water Forum, 18-25 May,
Bali, Indonesia
● International Transport Forum 2024
Summit, 22-24 May, Leipzig, Germany
● 60th Sessions of the
UNFCCC Subsidiary Bodies, 3 -13 June,
Bonn, Germany
● Daring Cities 2023, TBC, in
conjunction with SB 60, Bonn, Germany
● Sustainable Energy for All Global
Forum, 4-6 June Bridgetown, Barbados
● G7 Summit 2024, 13-15 June,
Puglia, Italy
● ICLEI World Congress 2024, 18-21
June São Paulo, Brazil
● London Climate Action Week, 22-30
June, London, UK
● 26th International Union of Forest
Research Organizations World Congress, 23-29
June, Stockholm, Sweden
● World Water Week 2024, 25-29
August, Stockholm, Sweden
● 79th Session of the
UN General Assembly (UNGA), 24-27
September, New York, USA
● Summit of the Future, 22-23
September, New York, USA
● New York Climate Week, 22 –
27 September, New York, USA
● 10th European Conference on
Sustainable Cities and Towns, 1-3 October,
Aalborg, Denmark
● United Nations Convention on
Biological Diversity COP 16, 21 October - 1
November, Colombia
● UNFCCC COP 29, 11-24 November,
Baku, Azerbaijan
● G20 Summit 2024, 18-19 November,
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
● United Nations Convention to Combat
Desertification COP 16, 2-13 December, Riyadh,
Saudi
Arabia | |
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