UN-Habitat Arena - NDCs 3.0: Urban Law and Multi-level Governance to Enable Climate Commitments (WUF13)

Good afternoon.
Dear colleagues and friends.
Let me welcome you to this important event panel discussion on implementing NDCs in and with cities through policy, law, and collaboration.
We have just 1 hour, so I would like us to go straight into the event.
My name is Babatunde Ahnsi.
I'm the UN resident coordinator in Tokyo, next door neighbor to Azerbaijan and it's really an honor to welcome you.
Let me start by acknowledging the presence of and inviting to the stage His Excellency, Mr.
Mosadik Malik, Federal Minister for Climate Change of Pakistan.
Thank you for joining us, Honorable Minister.
Is Enrique here? Can I also check if we have the Under Secretary for Multilateral Affairs and Human Rights of Mexico, Mexico.
A, Mr.
Enriquez, Jave Martinez, thank you for being here.
Welcome.
Thank you very much.
Also on this side of the hall with me is my long standing colleague, Fiona McCloony who is the Chief of Policy and Legislation at UN Habitat.
Thank you, Fiona, for joining us.
And of course, the dynamic dynamic Leer Ronaldo, Program Management Officer at UN Habitat.
Thank you for joining us.
Thank you.
So I hope you can all hear me.
I'm told there is some challenges with the acoustics, so I will try and shout into the microphone so that you can all hear me.
Dear friends, this event explores how law, governance, and policy can bridge the gap between national climate ambitions and local realities, putting cities at the center of action and the tool sector discuss the following.
One, how can we turn national climate plans into actions in cities.
Two, what legal and policy tools can accelerate resilient urban development? Three, what are some bold actions that we can take to unlock climate action ahead of the next World Urban Forum.
Finally, How can cities and partners move faster from commitments to delivery? Those four sets of questions really are challenge this afternoon to unpack, to elucidate, and to shed light on them.
So let me start with the first segment of this one, which is the launch of the urban content of the NDC 3.0 report by layer.
Over to you left.
Now it's my time to struggle with the microphone.
Works? All right.
Let me stand up because I'm dynamic apparently.
DD might join us, but she's a bit delayed, so I'll skip over that and we'll give her the floor whenever she comes.
This is me and it's my absolute pleasure to launch it today.
Our new report on urban content in NDC is 3.0.
You will be seeing these copies around and especially here, please do grab one.
I want to talk about NDCs 3.0.
It's my favorite acronym.
It's my favorite three letter words, and I want to show you that this is an acronym that is full of potential and also hopefully to make it your favorite three letter word.
Just to get us on the same page, NDC is the national climate plans.
They're being updated every five years under the Paris Agreement, and they're really the country's roadmap to showcase their climate commitments on both mitigation and adaptation.
What is new for these NDCs 3.0 is that they are supposed to be implementation ready.
They really are the NDCs where action should be hitting the ground running.
So we're seeing a broader scope, not only in mitigation adaptation, but they're also supposed to talk about the finance that is needed in order to make action happening.
And we're also seeing a broader dimension of loss and damage.
As of a couple of weeks ago, we had around 140 NDCs submitted.
We're not quite there yet.
So this analysis is supposed to look into where do we stand today, but also what are the opportunities that are coming out of this.
Maybe as a short pass the reflection, it was my dream that at one point all the NDCs would be containing cities and have them anchored in there.
If we look at the findings, We're not far off.
80% of the NDCs have cities anchored in them.
They are well developed content of cities in the NDCs.
And why is this relevant? It's because this is an opportunity to unlock finance, to think about how we can make sure that the NDCs are aligned with the Paris Agreement.
It's, of course, also an opportunity to make sure that national targets can be translated into local action on the ground.
And what's the very positive thing is that we've been seeing a massive shift between NDCs 2.0 and NDCs 3.0.
NDCs 2.0, just a little bit under half acknowledged the role of cities.
For NDCs 3.0, it's a whopping 80% of them.
I'm very close to having my dream of having all of the NDCs include cities fulfilled.
But it's not only that, and we are seeing that the NDCs, 3.0 are becoming implementation ready in cities and with cities, really through urban climate action.
Half of the NDCs are acknowledging and making cities a priority, meaning that they're thinking about what's the policies, what's the legislations and the enabling mechanisms that we need to take on in order to implement these NDCs.
And not only that, but across multiple sectors, at least in three sectors, a priority, but across at least three sectors.
For example, transport, waste, energy, water.
If you look into this graph, you see that very positive dot moving into the right corner showing that positive development of really putting cities at the center, both for the means of implementation, but also for the actions and the responses that are being lined out in the NDCs.
I want to dive a bit deeper into what are the specific sectors that are talking about that are being lined out in the NDCs.
One is, if we look into mitigation, it's specifically transport and mobility.
So the NDCs are talking about electrification of the transport sector, public transport, they're talking about walking and biking infrastructure in cities.
More than half include urban energy.
Specifically renewables, energy efficiency in buildings.
Just a little bit over a third are referring to waste and wastewater.
He really referring to recycling and resources, efficient use of resources.
One interesting finding is I had assumed that all the very ambitious NDCs with strong greenhouse gas emission reduction targets would also be the ones that would be including cities the most.
That's actually not quite the case.
It's the countries that are highly urbanizing that are including the cities the most in their NDCs.
If we look into adaptation, we're seeing that the majority of the NDCs are including cities in their adaptation responses.
What does that mean? It means specifically they're talking about urban infrastructure.
How do we make sure that urban infrastructure can respond to the climate risks that cities are experiencing? Talking about flood management and nature based solution in order to address that.
And we're talking about water management in the NDCs, again, specifically talking about sanitation and the water infrastructure that is needed and nature based solution, and of course, talking about ecosystems and biodiversity, again, highlighting the importance of nature based solutions there.
One of the big findings has been that whenever NDCs include climate risks, if they talk about heat waves, if they talk about floods, landslides, they're also much more likely to talk about the specific responses that are needed in order to address that.
Of course, we're here at the World Urban Forum and housing is at the center, allow me to give you a brief overview of how housing has also become a priority across the NDCs.
We're seeing that just half of them just shy of half of them are including housing and informal settlements in their NDCs This is heavily prioritized by least developed countries who of course are experiencing the housing crisis the most, and we are seeing that this is specifically linked to talking about affordable and safe housing, disaster risk reduction, building an infrastructure standard, urban planning and land use, and again, nature based solutions.
You see that nature based solutions are quite cross cutting theme in these NDCs, but there's also some gaps that are still existing, specifically when it comes to informal settlements upgrading and tenure security.
So That's all great news.
We see that cities are moving to the center of this NDCs, housing is moving to the center of the NDCs, but we need to talk about how do we now actually make this happen? What are the mechanisms, the means of implementation that are in there and that are written into these national climate plans that talk about how to turn this all now into reality on the ground.
We looked into how is finance reflected in the NDCs.
And yes, there's an increase in development between NDCs 2.0 and NDCs 3.0, but we're starting at a quite low mark.
This is definitely something where we still see lots of potential for progress.
Where finance is mentioned, it's mainly on mitigation, which is, of course, in line with the global conversations, but we're also seeing an integrated mix talking about adaptation and mitigation finance together.
There is an acknowledgment of the need of having subnational and urban climate finance.
There is talk about the importance of private sector and blended finance, about getting international climate finance into cities and public finance and budget allocation.
Here, we're seeing that African and Asian countries are taking the lead in reflecting of how to get money into their cities.
One of the biggest shifts is this.
We've been really seeing that multi level governance and capacity building have moved as a means of implementation and is reflected very strongly in these NDCs.
Over half of them are making a specific reference to that, that has doubled since the last iteration cycle.
We're seeing that there's conversations around vertical coordination, training and skill development, institutional strengthening and technical assistance, legal and regulatory frameworks, and multi stakeholder partnerships.
For those of you who might know CAMP, the Cop 28 pledge, this is also where we are seeing that they're showing the strongest commitment to multilevel governance, to really this vertical coordination across the different levels of governance.
To give you one example, and I picked it because we just came from Cp 30 and is Brazil's example on climate federalism, where they are bringing the federal and the subnational level together to talk about integrated and coordinated approach.
With that, we not only need to talk about NDCs as documents, we need to talk about how we now make this happen and implement this.
Of course, there's still an opportunity to finalize the 50 plus NDCs that need to be finalized, then analyzing them, identifying the priority sectors, and then using this information to make sure that we can talk about what are the partnerships, the multi level multi stakeholder partnerships that we need in order to support project delivery on the ground, to make sure that all of these documents can be turned into real action on the ground.
These are the main takeaways in case you take anything away and I'm competing against singing and dancing in the background is that 80% include NDCs in a well developed way across adaptation and mitigation.
Half of them are making them a priority across at least three sectors, which is incredibly exciting.
Then just shy of half of them are talking about housing and informer settlements in the NDCs.
This is, of course, now the perfect window opportunity to go from policy documents into implementation.
You see some copies of the report laying here.
What can you find in there, thematic deep dives, case studies, dashboards, and all the different countries.
For those of you who prefer an online version, you can scan the QR code and with that, big thanks to you, doctor Babatunde, and to you, dear audience and back to you.
Thank you very much, Le, for a great presentation.
You can see, dear friends that we are making progress.
It's good to see that both housing and cities are featuring more prominently in NDCs.
But as you said, that's just the start.
The challenge now is to really implement the NDCs 3.0 in and with cities.
Through policy, law, collaboration, finance, and so on.
That is really the next chapter of this journey.
I think we can have no better way of examining how to move from plans and targets to action than really to hear from those who are actually at the forefront of implementing the Nds in cities and with cities.
I'm really honored to ask a few questions of the Honorable Federal Minister of Climate Change in Pakistan.
His Excellency Musadi Malik.
Pakistan is one of the few countries worldwide where urban and climate change portfolio are combined.
Can you share So experiences of what that means for your work, and Pakistan strongly features cities in its Nds 3.0.
So we would also like to hear from your Honorable Minister how you will leverage the NDs towards achieving adequate housing and sustainable urbanization.
I'll give you the mic.
Thank you very much.
And truthfully, I'm at a loss.
I don't know how to respond to your question.
I mean, if we are 170 in Human Development index out of 190 some, and if we are 140 in SDGs out of 160 some, I don't know how to answer your question.
I mean, I would tell you that Those who are doing are not suffering, and those who are suffering are not doing.
And up until this hypocrisy is resolved, we will not get anywhere.
If 87% of the people 87% of the countries have already incorporated urban planning into the NDCs, and the report is published, then why have I been telling the stories of a mother who cannot send her young kid, young daughter to school? Why is it that in the last heatwave just about two years ago, about 600 people died in Karachi, which is one of the largest, the largest city in Pakistan.
Why did they die? Because of the heat capsule.
If all of what we are talking about and of all of what we are saying on these stages is true, then why are the lives of the people in your country in my country in Bangladesh and all of the other D eight countries? Why are their lives not changing? Somehow or the other, I see a very big gap between reports, conversations, and the reality that I see on an everyday basis and truthfully, I cannot reconcile it.
I mean, we have all put together NDCs and they're all in all in place and they all have urban chapters.
But just over the past so many years, the funding for the developed economies has moved from $350 billion green financing to close to $600 billion, 340 or $350 billion to $600 billion.
And the least developed countries, all of them put together have received $39 billion.
Don't you see a problem there? So what are these documents? How would these documents, I mean, wishes are not strategies.
Hopes are also not strategies.
These large fora, where we have these conversations are also not strategies.
So what I don't see, I see a lot of aspirational statements, and I see NDCs filled with aspirations and hopes.
But when you double click on any country, not just ours, I ask you a simple question.
Where is the money? How is this going to happen? And then we use quickly, I use a lot of jargon words resilience, nature based adaptation.
But the truth is, you double click on any of these things in the World Bank reports that Pakistan alone requires, I don't know, 200, 300 billion, our leaders are sitting there and they know exactly how many billions are required for adaptation.
Adaptation is all of what you're talking about.
Adapting cities, adapting away from heat capsules, from death holds, from poverty, from a mother not able to send her child to school because the school is 4 kilometers or 4 miles away and there's no infrastructure.
She is to trade safety for education.
But all of those billions that have been assessed by the World Bank Where are they? Where are those billions? I mean, sometimes I feel we don't know how many zeros are there to 1 billion.
And then our report tells us 300 billion required or 287 and we squabble over whether it's 287 or 311 for God's sake.
Do we know how many zeros are there to 1 billion and where is it going to come from? Multilateral funding is going down.
We all know that.
When you look at alternative funding, what do you hear? You hear repurposed loans.
You know what repurposed loans are? These are loans away from health and education into devastation and restructuring.
Loans that were originally directed for health and education, when they get redirected to devastation, urban devastations, or flood devastations, they're called repurposed.
Repurposed away from what? From the problem that we're trying to solve.
Health and education and poverty and dignity.
So if you're going to repurpose those loans to some kind of infrastructure which is devastated because we didn't root cause it, then there's going to be more lack of education, more lack of health, more mortality, more morbidity, more infant mortality, more maternal mortality, more dropout rates, less kids going to school.
It's like an infernal circle.
Similarly, the other big trend that I see is green bonds.
You know, these are novel instruments.
You know what bonds are? Bonds are death.
Do you know what our debt profile is? 50% of our total collection tax collection goes into debt servicing.
And what the world has to offer is more debt.
What number is good? 90% of our total revenues going into debt servicing or 70%, we have already crossed 50%.
Why do I say this? I'm not saying it's the responsibility of the world.
Our children are our responsibility, and by God, we would fulfill that responsibility with the world or without the world because these are our children.
And I speak on behalf of all D eight countries.
We will do it.
We are committed to doing it.
But having said that, we also then when I hear these ideas, I get a little bit lost.
I don't know which of the reality is true, the reality in this room, or the reality from where I come.
And then I struggle, and I toggle, and I can't find the answers.
So I have a lot of questions.
I don't have a lot of answers.
I can only tell you we are committed.
We are going to do it, but you have to understand that we contribute less than 1% to the carbon dioxide equivalent emissions, less than 1%.
Three countries, three, not 33, three countries are producing 57% of the world's carbon dioxide.
Ten countries are producing over 70% of the world's carbon dioxide.
Same ten countries are taking all of the green global funding.
Isn't it bizarre? Don't you find it shocking that those who are polluting are taking green financing, and those who are getting affected have no financing.
They would still do it, but we are not causing it.
We are getting affected by it, and this demarcation is the centerpiece to what we're discussing today.
I'm sorry you have taken too much time.
I don't know if I've answered your question, but I've answered all of your other questions.
Thank you very much.
Thank you very much, Honorable Minister Malik.
I think part of the conversation here is how to close the frustratingly huge implementation gaps that we see.
A big part of that is finance, the finance gap and the inequities in the international financial system, as we see it.
A lot of the work that the Secretary-General has been trying to push with international financial institutions is how to restructure the international financial architecture so that it really serves the needs of countries that are bearing the brunt of the adverse impacts of climate change.
We hear you loud and clear and sometimes in a conversation like this, questions are more enlightening and answers because we don't really have all the answers.
But if we get a chance, we'll come back to you, but you've made very, very important points.
But part of the progress that we need to also see is with national legislation, how to ensure that the NDCs are implemented will usually require changes to existing laws.
So it will really be helpful for an audience like this to get a sense of what is possible through legislative reform and so on.
Let me ask my dear colleague Fiona McClone who is the Chief of Policy and Legislation at UN Habitat to share some insights with us on this issue of legislation.
National urban legislation that can really help accelerate the implementation of NDCs from the perspective of habitat.
Over to you.
Thank you very much, Babatunde.
Thank you very much, Federal Minister Malik.
I think you really gave us a reality check there.
I'm a little bit ashamed now to talk about policy and legislation in the absence of thinking about the context in which we're applying it.
Informal settlements are one of the most vulnerable spaces for climate change.
And as we know, Pakistan's abadis are really some of the many cities have large proportions of their populations accommodated within chbadis within the cities in Pakistan.
Um I'm not going to be bold enough to say that the global work that human habitat does on policy and legislation can necessarily solve the issues that relate to climate change across the world.
What it can do is enable countries to assess their own laws and regulations to determine whether they do currently have legal gaps that can be filled that can allow them to be better positioned to help people build housing that is more resilient building codes that encourage the use of materials that don't rely on carbon intensive materials.
Perhaps also, and this is, I think, a an issue in richer cities as they grow, combining the development of the city with transit orientated opportunities which can allow densification and prevent the use of private cars and the emissions that relate to private cars and petrol.
Laws in themselves can create the framework for change.
They can protect green spaces that allow nature based solutions and absorption of flooding, but they can also allow more compact and connected cities to develop in the future.
What UN habitat does in the section that I have recently joined, and I speak on behalf of now, is they have a toolkit which looks at the role of law and climate change.
It's a diagnostic tool which enables countries to review their laws and see where priorities need to be in terms of making concrete legal changes to fill the gaps and look for opportunities in legislation, zoning, and building regulations for the future.
There's also, as there always is in these global situations, an e learning tool which allows people to look online to learn the uh the diagnostic elements of the law, and so far, 600 or so users have been taking that forward.
I We're all aware that climate change is an imminent risk.
I remember the graphs when COVID was there, but climate change was even bigger.
We have to face the consequences of that every day.
I think for those countries that are poorer, that have huge debt burdens, certainly the impacts are much higher.
But throughout the world, there are opportunities to improve things incrementally to see how we can address them.
A little bit, if you want to ask me a harder question, Babatunde, I'm still here.
Yeah.
Thank you.
I actually share your optimism about how legislative reform can create a space and enable more ambitious climate action.
We've seen this in Tokyo where I serve that the fact that the country last year passed into law, a national climate legislation has really galvanized actions across sectors not just within government, but also private sector and civil society.
So that framework for action is also quite important in this journey that we face.
But Mexico Mexico is also a very interesting case under Secretary for Multilateral Affairs and Human Rights.
You have written into your national climate plan, cities.
So it'll be good to hear from you how you will turn this into implementation.
And as we hear from you, we would also be happy to get a sense of what is that one bold reform that can unlock faster climate action in cities within, let's say, the next two to three years based on your experience in Mexico.
Thank you very much.
If you allow me to dwell a little bit on the first question you asked about where is the money? I think it is easy to see where the money is being spent these days, which is in wars.
When you're seeing the military expenditure, how it is increasing particularly in NATO countries, you see why there is no money for climate, there's no money for poverty eradication.
The ODA is basically decreasing across the board.
So I think this is an issue where I wanted to zoom out a little bit and see what is going on.
And also, when you're thinking about climate action and when you see the amount of emissions during the first days of the war in the Middle East, this is also something that you need to take into consideration.
Also, the other thing I'm here and I disagree a little bit with our colleagues from you and Abby that about climate change being a reality.
I'm not questioning it, but there's questioning about climate change.
When you listen to the debates that are going on right now, in probably in the minority of the world, but in a part that is very influential, it is also having a huge impact.
When you also listen to what is going on, I listen to the debates of the Secretary-General for the election of the Secretary-General and listen to the words that the candidates use.
It is very interesting to hear where we're heading.
I think this is just like I'm raising a flag here because Even if here we all agree that climate change is a reality and it is threatening us, those with more influence are influencing not only their constituencies, but they're also influencing the United Nations.
We have to be very careful about that.
So just to say, well, going back to your question, sorry.
Going back to your question.
Of course, this is our third NDC, and we have learned a lot from the previous NDCs processes.
And to come with this NDC, I mean, from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, we try to engage absolutely everybody, not only the Ministry of the environment, but also the Ministry of Urban Planning.
I am happy to see that more than 80% that Mexico is among those countries that have includes cities in more than 80%.
I mean, just to say that we have in urban development transport, land use and planning instruments that has become law.
In 2024, we issued a standard which sets the guidelines to ensure that land use and urban development explicitly addresses climate change mitigation and adaptation.
Also, to say that from a normative alignment, our NDC is aligned with our national development plan, the national law on climate change, and the specific program on climate change.
And these are basically all new laws and government policies drafted at the national and state level that want to bring us into the implementation, which is the most important part in our NDCs.
And this is not a small feat.
It is an evidence that climate action is, from our perspective in Mexico, still in Mexico, is a whole of government commitment across geographical and party lands.
So this is where I feel safe to speak from here, from the Mexican perspective where we are not questioning the issue of climate change.
And also, another issue that I wanted to highlight is the issue of participant governance.
Mexico's climate framework recognizes the role of the state of course, the federal, the state level and municipal authorities, and the NDC calls for stronger subnational governance aligned state and municipal legal frameworks, climate council, local measurement reporting systems.
And just to say, at the very last Mexico's national climate change system is an innovative platform that allows for all actors to have an overall picture of public policy on climate change and understand how everything works together.
Thank you.
Thank you very much again for some of the reality checks.
It is true.
I think at the opening ceremony, one of the speakers gave us the figure in terms of the climate impact of wars, the kinds of emissions generated by a six day war, for example, how it equates to the emissions of more than 70 countries over a year.
I mean, this is really huge.
And the other point that you made that resources that go into war are resources lost to actions that are required on climate poverty and so on.
So it's a very important reality check to have.
We really must have a comprehensive and balanced conversation when we discuss climate change and climate action.
But also it's quite a encouraging what Mexico has done with new national laws and guidelines that basically make land use and urban planning more informed, climate action informed.
That is also very important.
The point that you made about multi level governance in terms of the implementation of climate related frameworks and so on.
That is something that we must bear in mind that this requires whole whole of government approach.
We cannot really advance towards really ambitious climate action without involving all sectors of government and all levels of the governance system.
We're a bit short on time, but I would go from one end of this panel to the other and really ask you to based on everything that you have heard, to really say what is just one for you.
One single bold step that can accelerate climate action in cities in the next two to three years, just one bold step.
Maybe I'll start from you layer.
I was certainly not prepared to answer that question.
But maybe first, thank you for these reality checks.
I think it's good to hear that it's maybe not good to hear that some of these papers is reproducing them and of course, putting lots of effort into this, trying to understand what are the priorities and what can be done.
But it's really important to anchor this in the realities that are existing on the ground.
I really thank you for that reality check.
Maybe I think No bold idea, but idea that I want to put forward is, for me, what are the NDCs? It's a conversation opener to really take this and say, these are the priorities, this is the pathway that we're lining out.
Now we need to talk about how to turn this into reality and turn this into local implementation on the ground to exactly address the issues that we've been discussing here.
I have the hope and I hope I'm not going to be the first one answering this question, getting my hope destroyed by the fellow speakers.
And to say that, you know, this is a conversation opener and hopefully also something that where we can then talk about getting money into countries that need it the most and into communities that need it the most.
Yeah.
Thank you very much.
I mean, taking into account the amount of emissions that come from transportation and the importance of emissions that come out of cities because of transportation, I think we have to concentrate more on transportation.
And therefore, I think in Mexico City, we have had a good experience in addressing this issue with new cable lines, I mean, I don't know whether you I mean, allow me to make a little publicity to visit the Mexican stand where you could see the little cabin for the cable bus.
This is a new way that Mexico City is trying to address less emissions and also bicycle lanes.
And just to say that President Sheinbaum and also our mayor of Mexico City, who was here in Baku are very much committed to addressing climate change to the issues related to transport.
And just to invite all of you to come to Mexico in two years to Wolf 14.
Sorry for the publicity, but if you want to come before for the World Cup, you're also welcome.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
And honorable Minister Malik.
My view is that when I read these documents, I find these documents very technical, and I find the solutions all technical.
And I find the definition of urban community as a formal urban community as if by wishing we'd make all of those shanties and all of those achihi somehow or the other turned them into spawn cities through technical interventions.
What I don't find is the voice of people who are living there.
Bring them center stage, it's about them.
Bring them center stage, Create a moral document, a moral argument.
Question the justice in it and rights, rights, justice, and morality.
If you bring that as the centerpiece rather than the technical details of what a sponge city is going to look like, you'll get all the solutions in place.
Define dignified life and walk it backwards and what you want for your own children, Just lay it out accordingly and you'd get all the solutions right.
But if you tried to come from the supply side, you'd never get it right.
Frankly, for doing all of that, whatever is required, if it's not in place, it will not happen.
It's just a wish.
Thank you.
Another challenge here with this.
Although I maybe on behalf of the World Urban Forum, I listen to slum dwellers international from the dialogues on Sunday reporting back on Monday morning, some of their priorities that they wanted to see at the center of the housing debate.
I also know that part of the forum today is full of the voices of the city and I can tell you none of the UN habitat events were allowed in that one.
Those really are the voices of the city.
They are NGOs, community groups that wanted to be here to put their point of view.
Of course, it's not everybody and it's not nearly enough.
But I think one thing this forum does do is it brings together private sector, governments, ministers, and the voices of the city and the representatives in the dialogue.
So a little bit of opportunity there to find this voice.
My ended piece, I think in 2015, I was so optimistic about what the climate agreement, the opportunities, the global what member states had done in terms of making this commitment to reduce CO two emissions.
I remember thinking, is it really possible? Then maybe five or so years later, we heard that the ozone hole closed.
Because of what we have done to reduce the use of refrigerants across the world in every single country.
So I really do believe that collective global action around problems can realize results.
We have a much bigger problem, we have wars, but there are so many barriers, but I don't want to lose the optimism that was there in 2015, even if the SG candidates are maybe not bringing it front and center in their current discussions.
Thank you, Fiona, for putting some optimism in the air.
Just to say, dear friends, I think this has been a a journey and it's work in progress.
I think climate action would always be work in progress, given how far we still have to go.
But there has been progress.
As we've seen with the Nds and the greater attention to cities and housing.
If you look around, you analyze all the NDCs, 3.0 countries are really putting forward more ambitious Nds climate finance, yes, there is inequity in its distribution, but it is growing faster than ever before.
You look at renewable energies, it's becoming the fastest growing source of new energy across the world, and it's getting cheaper on a unit basis.
There are more technological advancements in the pipeline that should keep us a bit hopeful, but you have to address the equity issues.
That is the point I'm hearing here.
You also have to pay attention.
If you are trying to achieve equity, you have to hear from those who bear most directly the adverse impacts of climate change.
I think it's a point that we also have to take with us.
But laws are also important to create the enabling framework to enable more ambitious climate action.
And certainly, we cannot leave out the cities, the municipalities, the local authorities, private sector, civil society, the media.
It has to be a whole of society and whole of government approach if we are really to see the kinds of change that we are desirous of especially those captured in the NDCs 3.0.
I'm told that the Deputy Prime Minister of Slovak, is he here? No? Maybe we will use the time that was allotted to him to wrap up this session to open it up for one or two reflections from the other participants.
Anyone moved by the spirit by what you've heard who wants to say something, okay? Please say who you are and make your intervention.
Thank you very much, resin coordinator.
My name is Neil K, and I was with UN Habitat.
I was the chief of staff of UN Habitat under my Monasrif and now I'm the advisor to the Cop 31 high level champion.
I would just like to thank all the panelists, Minister from Pakistan.
I think we really hear you on behalf of the climate high level champion and we are here to listen to the voices from the ground.
We are here to find solutions and from Today at the World Orpen Forum, all the way to Atala we'll be looking for interesting moments of collaboration and more importantly, identifying actions instead of, sorry to say, more talking, making sure that policy is translate into practice.
I would like to thank UN Habitat and the city of Baku for hosting this amazing World Urban Forum and looking forward for Mexico.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Okay.
The name and then give your intervention, your name, your affiliation.
She's there in bright light pink.
Over to you.
Thank you so much.
This is Fatim Mali Khan.
I'm representing the Rawi Urban Development Authority, which is a flagship mega project of the government of Punjab, very proudly Pakistan.
I'm looking after the special initiatives, the rural uplift, the resilient cities, and I have with me my chief urban planner, Mr.
Zahithusan as well.
I'm very, very delighted to see how my country is so beautifully represented by our honorable Minister, Mr.
Musar Malik.
I have to laud that the work which the Ministry of Climate Change is doing in Pakistan in bringing about this awareness and bringing Pakistan on the map of those self aware self resilient countries.
It's simply, simply worth accolades and appreciation.
I want to comment that I want to draw attention to this mega flagship project of the government of Punjab, where we are building the largest riverfront city in the world, and I want to draw attention of all the membering countries and the UN Hepith to come and explore and to discover that what wonders the government of Punjab under the able leadership of the CM Chief Minister Punjab, Madam Maria Navharif Saba is doing.
I really want that I want to invite all of you to come and see how we are building a resilient city, how we are emphasizing that the brown areas should not be the green areas should not be converted into brown areas, how we are especially emphasizing to uplift the rural life of this new city which is being built, how we are turning the largest, one of the largest dump sites of Asia, Maehmoud Butti into an urban forest and taking green initiatives in it and building solar parks there.
My able minister, very, very honorable minister, Mr.
Musar Malik, it's being taken care under his leadership and guidance.
But from this esteemed platform, I want to take this privilege of introducing my country, the new city being built, and I want to bring Pakistan into this beautiful spotlight.
Thank you so much, sir.
Thank you very much.
Thank you for I think your honorable minister was too humble, so he didn't go into details.
He just said, we will do what we have to do to address the challenges posed by climate change.
You have really elaborated on some of those actions actually taking place.
Really glad to hear that.
One more intervention then we'll have to wrap up.
No.
Please go ahead.
Hello, everyone.
My name is Tirana.
I'm the founder of a global female empowerment platform called FMI.
Can you hear me? Yes.
Okay.
Yeah, just adding my $0.02 into the discussion.
I think we need to include more diverse voices in this conversation, especially more female voices, more young voices, because those are people that bring different perspective and innovation to the table.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
I think the point is well noted.
Before I thank the panelists, let me just say a few keywords that are emerged from this discussion this afternoon.
The first, of course, is that we have to close the implementation gap.
We must move from just having plans, targets, and so on to really implementing.
To implement effectively, equity has to be an operating principle, a guiding principle.
We also have to involve all levels and all sectors of society.
The whole question about participatory climate governance, I think is coming out clearly in all of this, but also the importance of law and legislation to enable more ambitious climate action.
Ultimately, as I think the honorable minister said, we have no choice but to act.
And to act with the speed, the urgency, and scale required to really deal with the adverse consequences of climate change, even when we are not responsible for producing those adverse consequences of climate change.
So I hope like myself, you are living this event with a certain sense of optimism that really cautious optimism.
I like that we can do this.
We owe it to ourselves, but more importantly, we owe it to the future generation.
Cities will be at the center of the solutions.
Yes, they are part of the challenges that we face, but cities also offer us a way out in terms of scale, in terms of innovation.
In terms of participatory governance and so on.
Let's leave here with those words of optimism.
Thank you so very much to our panelists.
Fiona, thank you for being part of this exciting conversation.
Honorable Minister, you've been like a pop star this afternoon.
Thank you for Under Secretary.
Thank you very much for being part of that, and of course, La for putting all of this together and for launching that report.
Thank you very much.
Thank you all for being part of this.
Thank you.