Dialogue 4 - The Climate-Housing Nexus (WUF13)

It's in our nature to build.
For most of us today, this is what home looks like.
And they're growing, expanding, and multiplying.
By 57 million.
That's seven out of every town people on the planet.
So whatever block you're from, cities are here to stay.
Thank Cities have become epicenters of pollution, and now nature is fighting back underwater by 2015.
Brutal heat wave.
But remember, we've made history in cities.
We've built dreams cities.
And we've changed lives in cities.
And we've always done it together.
Thousands of people have taken the streets of town.
It takes peaceful demonstrations in cities and towns.
It takes a village and its leaders.
An alliance of mayors are joining forces in cities all over the world, working together with the best minds of our generation.
Basically, the future proofing our cities, the building blocks of humanity.
It's in our nature.
Let's build climate resilient cities together.
Excellencies, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, and our global audience joining us online.
Good morning.
A very, very warm welcome to you to this dialogue for the Climate Housing Nexus of the World Urban Forum here in beautiful Baku.
My name is Anne Maria Diaz Borges, and I'm absolutely delighted to be steering the conversation here today.
So I have to share that throughout my career in international broadcasting, I have had the privilege of tracking so many different global narratives and issues on developments, but very few stories are as pressing or as profoundly personal as the one that we are gathered here today to rewrite as the story, in fact, of our homes and our planet.
We are living in an era where climate change is actively reshaping where and how humanity lives.
Rising heat, intense floods, and severe storms are threatening millions of neighborhoods around the world.
Yet the paradox is actually quite striking.
The built environment itself, the very roof over our heads is a massive driver of global emissions and energy demand.
So today, we break down the silos.
We are here to establish why housing policy is climate policy, how we can finance low carbon construction, and how to protect our most vulnerable communities without locking in future risks.
Our ultimate goal is to map out actionable strategies to build resilience, equity, and sustainability into absolute lockstep feeding directly into the Bu call to action.
So now, to understand where we are going, we must first clarify the intersections of our current urban reality.
And to do so, it is my pleasure right now to call three global experts.
Please join your hands to welcome onstage, Professor Edgar Pet, Founding Director of the African Center for Cities at the University of Cape Town and a leading global voice on Southern urban futures.
Welcome, Edgar.
Let's also welcome doctor Susy Hanna Singh, the Honorable Minister of Housing, Construction and Water Supply of Sri Lanka, who brings vast legislative and national policy experience in essential infrastructure.
Welcome, Doctor.
Let's also welcome Elizabeth Marua Marma, Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations and the Deputy Executive Director of UNEP, and also an award winning leader in International Environmental Law and biodiversity conservation.
Welcome.
It's a real pleasure to welcome you all and have you here with us this morning to discuss about such a pressing issue.
So let me start with you, Deputy Executive Director.
From UNP perspective, why is housing now essential to delivering national climate goals? Today, the housing market does not deliver housing affordability and climate resilience together.
What are the market failures and how do they need to be addressed? Thank you.
Thank you very much, and good morning, distinguished delegates in the room.
Million, thanks for that question.
I think first, we need to understand that all of us are here because we recognize how important and essential housing is to all of us irrespective of social status in a community.
So understanding that, it means first, we need to ensure the housing across all communities affordable, climate resilient, energy efficient, and also environmentally sustainable.
But when we talk of housing and particularly in a social setting, you have those who can afford and those who cannot afford.
But our key point is to ensure that housing is affordable across the society.
Then for us who are cotton and coat lineed' say then we need to ensure the building materials are environmentally sustainable, climate resilient because we know 2.8 billion people around the world live inadequate housing, and 1.8 billion live in informal settlements and slums.
These are the communities we are talking about.
Therefore, what then should be the nature of the buildings and the question you have asked, what are these market failures which actually they reinforce each other.
I will name or try to list about four or five.
First is the split incentive.
Developers build many times without looking or considering at the design stage what we are talking about climate resilient, energy efficient because the builders many times are profit oriented, and that's what matters.
But then who suffers later? They the residents have to pay the energy bills, and as a result, then investments in energy efficiency are often overlooked by the builders, leaving the households with higher long term costs and reduced comfort.
Two is the affordability quality gap.
Short term cost pressures push developers towards cheapest upfront options, and even when it is more expensive over building long term.
For example, and especially in the current generation, builders tend to build high rise at a cost of almost 20% more to construct and even up to three times to operate than the low rise cost buildings.
Again, we remain a default choice.
Three is the lifestyle costs that remain invisible.
Financing systems tend to prioritize upfront costs and overlook the long term savings from energy efficiency, durability, or better design.
Fourthly, is the trust gap in low carbon materials.
Particularly in the developing world, we tend to underestimate the low sustainable materials which are perceived as not the best as opposed to the costly imported materials.
This is not a technical issue, it is more our behavior.
We need to change this behavioral understanding and demonstrate that confidence building in our low carbon materials.
Fifthly, and the last is the policy and institutional gap which still exists.
Because we know in many countries, building codes and regulations are in place, but many times enforcement is inadequate.
Therefore, the builders continue to do what they want, what they think is the best to get more profit as opposed to ensuring those codes are enforced.
Probably let me stop there.
Otherwise, I can give a few examples from the UI perspective, what we are doing and maybe to do so quickly.
We UNEP, have identified probably five key lessons to learn from the challenges I've raised.
One is the secure land tenure, in particular for those vulnerable societies in the informal settlements.
They may replaced, but they are not secure at national level.
Secondly, is the form of the buildings to ensure they are low rise, which are mostly cost effective, as I said, more climate friendly option.
Thirdly, is the passive design, and this is where with the low rise, the shading is better, the natural ventilation is good and reduces also the energy use, and of course, strong institutions, as I have indicated.
In UNEP, we have platforms.
Which brings together partners, UN entities, governments, financials, stakeholders, and I'll name two or three.
One is, we have an International Council for Building and Climate.
We also have an intergovernmental committee on calling.
And part of the multi stakeholder platforms we have, we have a global alliance for buildings and constructions.
We also have a cooling coalition, and all these then bring different stakeholders to be able to discuss these issues.
Thank you.
Thank you so much.
Professor Peters, allow me to come to you for reaction on what we've heard and especially because we know that you've written extensively on those inequalities being built precisely into urban geography.
As climate pressures and economic migration accelerate, mega cities also are becoming more unaffordable and resource constrained.
First, I would like a reaction on what we've heard, but also, do you see satellite cities and secondary urban centers as part of the solution? Thank you so much and thank you for the opportunity to be part of this fascinating panel and all protocols observed.
Let me respond first, very briefly.
That was a really impressive and comprehensive framing of the challenges and the various domains of policy, priority, and focus.
Just to echo, I think, on the first point in terms of the criteria of what adequate housing should be within a climate frame, you mentioned affordability, along with climate resilience, energy efficiency, and sustainability and What we have found in our research is that all the stakeholders agree to these criteria, but that there's almost an unresolvable contradiction between the affordability piece and building differently.
We did a study in Cape Town.
The images you see above is an example of an alternative construction material, which is local timber, which is in between an urban farm and an art space in one of the townships of Cape Town.
The typical housing fabric is what you see in the image below.
And in these contexts, the residents feel, to your point about cultural acceptance of alternative building materials.
They feel that they've got to settle for what the elites are not willing to live in.
And so that's a real issue.
And so here we're trying to use cultural tools, so a very important cultural space for this community to demonstrate high quality design, to show that you can live differently and have aesthetically pleasing interventions and so forth.
So that just is one aspect of it to reinforce the cultural question that you mentioned.
But I think that this question of just involving the private sector to deal with the affordability crisis, we have found that they know there's a challenge, but they don't know how to solve for it.
So we interviewed the entire set of actors within the Western Cape construction value chain.
So the banks, the developers, the insurance companies, the audit firms, the construction companies, the small contractors, and so forth.
Everyone agrees this has to happen, but everyone acknowledges there's a price point involved, and no one is willing to accept the risk and the cost of that transition pain that is inevitably going to be part of figuring out what an alternative economic system is.
I think that we also need to think of some punitive measures that can get market actors to respond to more punitive signals in terms of behavior change.
We can give them a window within which they can adjust their financial models, but then has to be a point where there's a tax that's introduced for continuing to build in a non sustainable carbon intensive way.
Maybe the conversation has got to go beyond stakeholders talking about the values and the imperatives and we've got to begin to experiment with instruments that not only provide incentives, but that there's also regulatory punitive measures that gets introduced.
Because until they feel it at the bottom line, no one is going to come to the table to really talk about how to share risk and how to share the cost of the transition.
On your question about the spatial dimension and the satellite cities and secondary cities, whether we should be looking at that.
It is very difficult to answer that question in the abstract.
The European contexts are seeing depopulation and so they're struggling to figure out how to keep their cities viable and in a context where they continue to resist migration reform and they're going to continue to have labor market pressures as a result of that, these depopulating cities they represent a different crisis.
You can't have satellite cities to solve that issue because they already have a challenge.
In African context where you've got a phenomenon of primate cities, in other words, you've got one large city and then a whole bunch of very small cities below that, that might intuitively feel that, yes, that is exactly what we need is a series of satellite cities in between those two typologies.
The truth of it is that the data is very clear that if you try and through policy and public intervention force settlement patterns, it doesn't work.
People still move to the large city because that's where the economic opportunities are.
That's where the social development infrastructures are where they've got the highest chance of social mobility, because they can get their kids into school, they can get access to healthcare and so forth.
The cost of trying to engineer these satellite cities is so exorbitant that there's an opportunity cost there.
I would say rather make sure that you retrofit your existing city where the urban poor already live and where they already don't have access to adequate housing and figure out how to solve the problem in that context.
Then over time as the urban system matures, there might be a need for satellite cities or intermediary cities to fulfill a different economic function, but don't try and force it because it's going to be a waste of resources.
That's what the data tells us historically.
Thank you very much, Professor.
Let me come to you now, Minister Ransing for your take on what we've heard within the Asian context.
What is happening to those satellite cities? Are they relevant or not? What is your take on this? Also, I would like to ask you, what do you think it takes to make those new urban expansions socially inclusive? That's what we have been talking about as well, inclusivity and also environmentally sustainable from the beginning, as we're mentioning, planning from the beginning with the right intentions.
Thank you so much, Excellencies, distinguished guests.
It's a privilege to represent Sri Lanka in this important discussion at 13 today.
I'll answer your question by explaining the current situation and the practical experiences we had.
Sri Lanka is a tiny island situated in Indian Ocean near the equator.
So we are most vulnerable for climate changes and disasters.
The last couple of years, we had several climate changes and disasters like floods, frequent droughts and cyclones.
Urban planning and these strategic planning depends on these climate changes and disasters.
One of the most serious recent experience experiences we experienced is cyclone D last November, just six months ago.
During three days, it caused serious damage to our residences and houses.
More than 113,000 houses were damaged and around 6,000 houses completely destroyed, mainly in the islands in the central part of the island.
So we took immediate actions, and we have taken some key initiatives.
One of the key initiatives we have taken is to establish a central Highlands Protection authority to protect the highlands situated in the central part of the island, and we may have to relocate more than 100,000 families from that high risk area to more resilient areas.
Uh And we have identified ten more satellitd cities, and the urban planning is underway, and our capital city is Colombo, to prevent urban stress into the Columbus City.
We have identified those ten cities and have planned to develop those cities in recent future.
And also, we have, as I said, with this Central Highland Protection Authority, we are going to protect the area above the 5,000 feet height and above.
So this is not just a relocation.
We are not just building houses.
We are building resilient settlements and cities.
And also, we have taken actions to upgrade our national housing policy.
To include these resilient settlements and urban planning.
Thank you very much.
Thank you so much.
I actually have a question.
How do we avoid reproducing exclusion in these new satellite developments? How do we do that to make sure that we do not exclude the most vulnerable again? Yeah, in our country, when you consider these central areas, one of the most vulnerable communities is the state sector workers, and we have taken actions to, uh, to settle them and give them affordable houses.
And also, in the other part of the country, we have focused on low income families, and we have offered them quite a lot of quite a lot of grants to build their houses.
And among among the the various groups of the community.
We are more focusing on those der committees.
Thank you so much, Minister.
Professor, what is your take on this? How do we avoid exclusion one more time? I think we've got to recognize that within the existing market framework, it is very difficult, that is a lot of the a lot of the ways in which the factors that are excluded from the economic calculus obviously has always been, as we know, the environmental question.
It's been social impacts and social exclusion is one of them.
Within the contemporary formats, there will always be a significant degree of exclusion.
That's what the data tells us.
I think politically we struggle to acknowledge that and to accept that because we want to make the stakeholder dialogue process the political approach to solve the problem.
But the evidence is very clear, it does not reach the bottom 20%.
So you do need extraordinary measures, and that has to be connected to supporting the movements and the grassroots organizations that represent those constituencies within the political and the government systems.
That means obviously there's got to be a sufficiently open democratic framework that allows for dissent, but it also means investment in the social capital networks and infrastructure of those interest groups because if people don't demand and insist on their rights being acknowledged and represented in the solutions, it will not happen.
We know that historically.
I think that if that's not in the conversation, it's unlikely to happen.
If there is an acknowledgment that one needs to invest in the voice and the capability of the representative organizations of these constituencies, then I think we can see a progressive avoidance of that risk.
Thank you very much.
Deputy Executive Director, you've mentioned that as well.
Really involving the very people we're trying to protect into the process right from the beginning.
But let's talk about decarbonization now because I would like to ask you, how can new housing initiatives and existing housing stock contribute to the broader decarbonization goal while putting people in ecosystems at the center? Thank you very much.
What I like first about the question is the recognition of the link between climate change and other environmental problems.
Of course, decarbonization is one, ecosystem is another, and I will add pollution.
I think key is first, the most affected part of the population are the informal settlements slums and not you and me living in the urban areas.
And therefore, awareness and capacity building to these populations becomes key.
They need to know that that kind of housing or living condition they are in, how sustainable it is, particularly for their own livelihood and future.
We know housing building structures provide jobs and economy, particularly jobs for these local communities, but there are also impacts related to it, and especially when it comes to a building materials which do not consider environmental consideration, cement and how much cement is used in buildings, but there is a healthy impact to it if we're not careful.
Who will suffer those uh local family members who are the ones working in such construction.
Capacity building, awareness, and in our case, the organization is to develop tools and support also countries to develop tools as part of the codes and the regulations being developed.
Because these then support both the builders and the consumers in terms of what is needed.
And then of course, for us, as I said earlier, has been to work now with partners, with financials to really ensure that the housing, the building industry is climate resilient, energy efficient, environmental sustainable materials are used.
And these need to be incorporated in the design, not as an afterthought because then decarbonization will not work.
And we know that a 4% of buildings contribute, buildings account for 34% of global carbon dioxide emissions and 32% of that is energy use in the construction.
This is huge.
What mitigation measures then can be taken to reduce that and really get into decarboniization.
Then, of course, with the buildings, as I mentioned earlier, the importance of land tenure, we need to bring in ecosystem based approaches, nature based solutions so that As we create space for construction or for buildings, we know trees disappear, the forests disappear as the result.
What do we do to bring it back because we need the shades, cooling efficient and not to come and use air conditioners and the like.
Thank you very much, Professor.
Well, we've heard everything that needs to happen, but really, do we have the right financing mechanisms right now or the right international climate frameworks to afford that shift to make it happen? I think we have most of the international frameworks in place.
The gap is with implementation at the moment.
On the financing, the challenge we have is that it is still treated as two separately.
If we build on the previous speakers reflections, we need to build a system.
Firstly, the solutions are not going to be generic.
They're going to be very context specific.
Both because of socioeconomic and political economy factors, but also in terms of the natural systems and what's available for alternative building technologies.
For example, wooden timber is very significant in certain geographies.
Bamboo is a real viable alternative in others.
In the case of the region where we've done our research, we identified a private company that had figured out how to clear alien vegetation and repurpose the blue gum tree, which is an alien and very water intensive as a construction material.
With a miniscule amount of cement as a binding agent, you can replace conventional building materials with an extremely carbon efficient building material, but also it's cooling properties exceeds conventional brick and mortar by a significant factor.
But that's only an available technology that will work in that part of the world if you know what I mean.
You need to connect the codes and regulation reform, the building standards that was referred to, to understanding how do you build a local R&D capability between the universities, the private sector, and the state.
Then you need test beds because these technologies weren't mainstream into the market unless there's a proven business case.
And the financing piece is in that context.
Part of the test beds has got to be what's the financial model? What's the price point? How do you share the risk across the different actors in the ecosystem for constructing differently and with low carbon materials? It's then that I think we're going to see financial instruments developed that is going to be meaningful.
Yes, we need the national guidelines and frameworks and the brilliant work that has been done by UN Habitat and UNEP and so forth.
But it's really at the national and the sub national scale that I think the real financial models will have to be designed, tested, and then mainstream so that we can begin to see a real deep transformation of these value chains.
Thank you very much, Minister, let me come to you for your reaction, first of all, and I want to ask you bluntly, do you feel supported in Sri Lanka in this process? If not, what would you like to see happen here at the World Urban Forum? Actually, when we consider the carbon emissions, uh, our country is a tiny island, a green island, we are our contribution to a carbon emission is minimal.
I mean, not minimal, actually, is compared to the global numbers, but we are committed to initiate the, the things were reduced further.
And, uh, And also, we think that Sri Lanka has the potential to become a pilot country in climate action because we have taken a number of initiatives.
As I said, we have proposed establishing a central high end Protection authority, and we have identified several financial mechanisms to support lower incomes and all the categories categories for the affordable housing, and the the challenging issue is informal settlement in our country.
So we have taken actions to resolve that.
Also, we are taking actions to prevent further disruption of the natural resources as well.
And as a country, we are in a gap that we need financing.
So we invite the agencies to come and, uh, I mean, invest in our country to solve the problems.
And as governments, we are committed to resolve the problems, answer the housing issues to our community and for climate actions.
Thank you.
Thank you so much, Minister.
Thank you very much, Professor Peter and Deputy Executive Director Ra.
Thank you very much as well for your attention.
A big round of applause for our experts today.
Thank you.
And to Brown in the vision of UN Habitat, it is now my distinct honor to welcome to the stage, the Executive Director of UN Habitat and Claudia Rosbck Excellencies, colleagues, friends, good morning to all of you.
Perhaps to start recognizing our host country that has been able three days ago already to react fast and demonstrate preparedness to address a climate challenge that we had here in Baku.
I would like to start with this note because this has been the talk of the town.
And I couldn't avoid mentioning that.
Typical example.
It was all planned by the way, sorry.
It is a typical example of how communities are leaving, cities are leaving today.
We have been more and more surprised here.
I think the numbers that I heard is 400 times the average annual um, you know, volume of rain in one day.
So it's quite impressive and this is what imagine a community living in informal settlements, disconnected from the city, disconnected from infrastructure and from support, how they have to react, some of them on a very regular, unfortunately, very regular basis up to similar events, floodings, but they are also affected by heat waves.
They are affected by landslides, all types of events.
Um, so I think this is one part of the climate housing nexus discussion that we have not put too much, you know, upfront, and it's a debt that we have, and we now have to really bring this recognition because it's just not acceptable that we have more than 1 billion people that, as we speak, cannot access water, don't have electricity.
They are living in very, very, very precarious conditions and sleeping in fear.
Um, or going to work in fear that when they wake up, when they come back fearing for their children, children that cannot stay at school because they don't have a safe place to go back home and do the homework or just because they are sick because of the environment, the determinants of the environment.
So I hope this discussion lands in the midterm review of the new urban agenda as we think for the next ten years, Clearly, on the informal settlements aspect, we failed.
We haven't been able to address the challenge, and it is expanding and growing.
This is what the data is showing us in preparation to the high level political forum in New York now where we are reviewing SDG 11.
Africa just came from the Sustainable Development Forum in Adis.
There's a setback.
On this number.
I want to bring that right up front because this is an urgency that we have to address, and this needs to be fully embedded in the climate discussion.
Last year in Berlaine, for the first time, we brought housing and informal settlements to a CP debate for the first time in the history of CPs.
Hope we'll continue doing that.
I believe it will be possible now in Atalia just came from an event in Hatai where the president of Cp 31 committed to bring urbanization to the agenda and housing specifically as a critical aspect of resilience that we have to take.
I think we have been talking a lot about the numbers of informal settlements.
I don't have to repeat more, but then housing.
Then also to deal with informal settlements and to deal with the future needs and the 2 billion people that are coming to cities in the next couple of decades, we do have to build houses, especially where we don't have an asset of the built environment.
There are regions of the world where we have many opportunities to recycle, reinvent, transform the existing built environment.
But in many other regions, specifically in the Global South, look at Africa again, we still need to build for the needs of the people and people are coming and there are gaps.
How do you do that and where we do that? This is the big question mark and what is the interconnection of that with climate and how this has contributed in the past to aggravate the climate situation and how this will eventually contribute in the future if we don't deal with that.
Bottom line in terms of urbanization, here in KSPNC yesterday we discussed about that.
What's happening is that urbanization and Isa we had a nice fire chat yesterday, urbanization is actually eating the nature.
It's eating the environment and also the agricultural potential that we have.
It's affecting, it's threatethning our food security, it's threatening our life on Earth.
Many of the climate impacts or events that we've seen now, they are consequence of urbanization that was not planned and was not intentionally addressing people's and nature needs.
We have to look at the assets, the liabilities that we have and we have to fix that, but we have to look at the future.
Planning the land, which is a limited asset is critical.
The new urban agenda brings clearly the principle of the social and ecological function of the land.
Land has economic value, but it has most important a social and ecological function.
This needs to be embedded in urban master plans in national urban policies, in public investments, and so on and so forth.
We cannot keep growing as we grow in territory if we don't need, and we don't need because we grow much more in territory than in population.
We can avoid that.
The New Urban Agenda also brings the concept of more compact, balanced, dense cities.
We have to talk about densification.
This will save us money, this will protect the people, this will protect the nature, and this will make cities more productive and competitive and cities as a basis for also economic growth, economic development, and industrialization.
It's not an easy talk because people don't like to go up.
We had this talk right at the opening of of the roof, which I think these are hard conversations that we have to have.
We cannot keep everybody having one single houses, a garden and a pool in a gated communities expanding, expanding, and so on.
A poor people that are expanding because they don't have a chance in the city, they ended up receiving the blame.
We need to look at urban planning.
Uh, and we need to look and also when we explore, we need more infrastructure, this means more emissions.
The price is high at all levels, nature, emissions, and so on.
Then how we build in terms of construction materials.
We know that already.
We have know how, we still have some gaps in terms of combining sustainability and affordability, but I There's a large community working together to address research community, member states that are worried about that, UNAPs working.
We have been working together with UN Habitat UNAP looking at how we can build in a way that's sustainable and affordable for people everywhere.
Understanding that affordability is still a big question mark.
We are going to leave the wolf with the question.
The 30% was largely discussed, the standard 30% largely discussed as not sufficient because in many places people cannot even spend 30% of their income in housing.
How we do that? This is where we have to work together as a communities.
We have indigenous knowledge, local materials, wood, big potential forest countries.
These are all the fronts that I wish we can leave the Wolf and work all together, meet again at COP, assess the situation, Cop 31 in Atala meet again in Africa and As Cop 32, assess the situation in Wolf in Mexico.
But most important when we go also to New York, in relation to our agenda, the new urban agenda, that this is also clearly recognized, and we bring these two agendas, the urban and the climate more and more together.
And looking at the resident coordinator at the local level as well, we need to work on the ground because the conferences are critical and very important to guide our action, but we need to have action on the ground.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Thank you very much, Executive Director Ros Bark.
Indeed, putting people in ecosystems right at the center of the urban agenda isn't just an option anymore.
It's a baseline necessity for our future survival.
Well, one thing is very clear is that the question is no longer whether we invest in resilient housing, but how we invest in ways that simultaneously reduce emissions, strengthen resilience, and protect, of course, the most vulnerable communities.
And we have another exceptional panel to unravel all these questions.
So please let's welcome now Engineer Fahad Al Blishi mayor of the Medina Region and Chief Executive Officer of the Medina Region Development Authority in Saudi Arabia.
Welcome, Engineer.
Welcome.
Let's also welcome Mr.
Gregor Iveliv President of the Aurasian Patent Office, thank you, as well as doctor Muzadik Malik, Federal Minister for Climate Change and Environment Coordination of Pakistan.
Welcome.
Let's put our hands together as well to welcome misses Lynn O'Grady, Deputy Head of the Sustainable Infrastructure Group at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.
Yes, let's all welcome them.
Miss O'Grady with us.
Wonderful.
Doctor Malik, I know the stage is huge, isn't it? He's on his way fantastic.
Thank you so much for being with us.
Thank you, miss O'Grady.
Well, ladies, first, misses O'Grady, let me ask you.
Development Banks, I'll let you.
Do you have a mic? Fantastic.
So development banks are increasingly being asked to finance projects to deliver multiple outcomes at once.
We heard it earlier as well, decarbonization, resilience, affordability, and economic inclusion.
So in a context of limited fiscal space, we have to be honest and competing priorities, how can investments in housing be designed to advance both climate adaptation and mitigation coherently while maximizing social and economic co benefits? Thank you very much for the invitation to participate at this panel and just to say, I am from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.
This is a multilateral development bank.
We span three continents, former Soviet Union, Central and Eastern Europe, and we are now working in Africa as well.
I think importantly for this discussion, we cover both the public and the private sector under one roof.
Just to clarify, moderator, this is my first question of three.
Am I right? Yes.
Okay.
So I think I will just keep it simple and give you a project example.
So where EBRD has a very good template in housing is in the retrofit of buildings.
We have done that in a city in Kishina in Moldova and I know that the mayor of Moldova is here at the World Urban Forum.
And EBRD financed the retrofit of public buildings.
This was done through energy performance contract, meaning that the contractor is incentivized to ensure that energy savings ensue from that project.
The energy savings, in turn, they lower the overall cost of borrowing.
I'm talking there about this fiscal space this issue that everybody deals with.
Um, Al, the clear co benefits from that project in terms of energy efficiency, they allowed the project to be structured with a grant.
This grant was from the Green Climate Fund, so we were able to blend financing.
Thank you so much.
Let me turn to you now, Minister Malik.
I want to ask you, how do those trade offs look from the perspective of national governments and rapidly growing urban regions.
Okay.
Oh, please join us.
Thank you very much.
I hadn't realized that you had arrived.
Thank you so much.
I'm wondering if you've heard the question.
Let me ask you again.
Do you have a Yes, wonderful.
Let me ask you, how do those trade offs look from the perspective of national governments and rapidly growing urban regions? I'm sorry, I came a bit late.
So what trade offs? So we are talking about competing priorities when we are talking about financial space, in terms of investments in housing in order to advance both the climate adaptation and mitigation coherently and really making sure that we maximize social but also economic benefits for the populations.
I think it's a very complicated question.
I think the issue is that we're not looking at the entire value chain.
And the issue is that we're not looking at it from the poor person's perspective.
I think all the questions and most of the answers get down to the developers and developing a marketplace.
But if you're talking about the poor as in this forum, most of the conversations are, then there's tension.
If you want to raise housing stock, and I'm going to get into climate whenever you want me to.
But when you want to raise housing stock, you need to have very low cost of capital because the capital that is required to build up housing stock is enormous.
It's probably the most expensive asset class that you're building.
And when you want to build it for 3 billion people who don't have adequate housing or 300 million people who are homeless, then you have to think about the cost of capital from their perspective.
That's basically the first choke point where you might have capital.
But when you take into account the cost of capital, it becomes a very complicated situation.
The second issue that you then run into is some kind of financing mechanism, the affordability.
Even if you are able to raise that housing stock, how do you finance that housing stock? I mean, do you have mechanisms such as Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae? Can you raise that paper which you can give to the poor people, not just to the middle class.
I mean, there are some solutions for middle class, upper middle class, and rich people.
But when you're looking at the poor people, particularly in the South, you have to ask your question, what is the paper going to look like on the back of which you are going to create affordability? And now if you want asset velocity, and you just don't want asset creation and handing over this one time because if you have, let's say, $10 billion, you would give out $10 billion worth of housing stock and you'd be tough out of luck.
So the paper that you create, you have to have a system in place to place that paper somewhere to securtize it so that that money can feed back into the cost of capital or initial capital raising.
And this entire chain is not in place.
This chain is placed for governments, this chain is placed for developers.
But when you look at it from the affordability perspective, this chain is not available for the poor.
Therefore, the housing problem that you're identifying at least at habitat is the problem of those 300 million people who are homeless or 3 billion people out of seven some odd billion who do not have adequate housing.
The solution, if it is just about building a real estate marketplace, the solutions are there.
And the government with a little bit of facilitation can create that marketplace very easily.
But if your question is about the poor, then the solution is not in place.
There's a lot of conversation, but there's no real solution other than assuming that the governments are very rich and that the governments can do this.
And even if the governments were very rich and even if the governments were to look at the portfolio, then they have to look at the portfolio in its entirety.
Now I've gotten out of the housing stock and I'm gotten into policy.
So you have issues, you have issues of infant mortality, you have issues of maternal mortality, you have issues of children enrollment rates, you have issues of children's dropout rates, you have all sorts of complicated issues in developing economies, and now you have to create a balanced portfolio.
Now, housing is critical.
I'm sorry, I won't take very long whenever you want to stop me.
Housing is critical because housing is at the heart of all of the problems that I'm talking about.
If you have a community, I'm not even going to talk about housing.
It's a community where you can live a dignified life.
What is dignified life, where you can have access to job, gainful employment, where you can send your kids to school, where you have a clinic, where your parents and grandparents can go if they fall sick.
If you can create those kinds of communities, I think you're home for the poor.
That's the tension in which you have to make portfolio decisions.
Thank you very much.
I really want to bring in as well, your two co panelists here because you've touched on so many important points about that balance.
We need to strike it right.
Let me turn first to you, Mayor.
I have been to Saudi Arabia, which I love, by the way, and the progress that the kingdom has been able to make in solid time is quite interesting and quite fascinating.
Can you please share your experience on the back of what we've heard and how do you ensure that you strike the right balance? Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Actually, Medina, actually in Medina, we think that the nexus between climate and housing requires a radical shift in terms of our handling.
Beyond construction and beyond housing, this concept that urban resilience is not a financial burden, but an investment, a strategic one it reduces risks and disasters and also in relation to the financing, we are no longer considering housing as a financial obligation, but a comprehensive urban necessity where the measures that we take in order to mitigate climate change are in line with the social measures and equitable measures in terms of private and public investment and expenditures and also unleash to unleash the needed changes, the cities have to speak the language of international investors and the language of data and transparency.
Since Medina is one of the leading cities in terms of adopting urban indicators, and social indicators, we adopted the concept of governance in accordance with ISO and we also have a framework for investment readiness, and this provides a a transparent and reliable framework to attract investors and investment in line with the sustainability, and this is needed and vital for the housing sector in our city.
We have also a platform that allows us to monitor 300 urban indicators across different important pillars.
So this monitoring is not limited to following up our advancement, but also mitigates the risk of private projects and private enterprises.
By providing reliable and transparent guidance, we guide our investors into areas that provide the best return, and we have many brilliant examples like, for example, the restoration of We Atigue in El Medina.
This is a brilliant example in terms of channeling the A water alley turning it into a green space, and we took into account the potential risks, and this created a good return and it is economically viable and supports the environmental sustainability of the city and allows also to increase green spaces And we have also atlas for sustainable development for our neighborhoods, and we adopt different indicators across 70 neighborhoods in order to provide data based guarantees by analyzing the potential risks and ensuring that our interventions in municipalities improve the life of our neighborhoods and also distribute return on investment in an equitable manner.
This is in line with our strategy 2020, 2030 to create a vibrant society.
We are not only building for sustainability or we are not only building for resilience, but we are building for sustainability for the entire population of Elmedin.
Thank you very much, Mayor.
I understand that unfortunately, Minister Al Malik has to leave us.
So this was short and sweet, as we say, thank you so much for everything that you've managed to share in such a little amount of time.
Thank you.
So let me turn to you now, Mr.
Iviv to ask you the same question, and I also want to throw it in there, you know, can realistically resilience and affordability be achieved simultaneously? Distinguished, ladies and gentlemen.
First of all, I would like to thank the organizers for involving the experts for intellectual property.
I am representing Russian Federation here and the Authority for Intellectual Property in Eurasia.
Thank you very much for involving us into the conversation and thank you dear moderator.
I would like to say that the solution of global tasks has to be directed not only to the balance, it should be based on the search of innovative solution, which we need to incentivize the R&D areas to get to this innovative solution.
There cannot be a general or a common solution.
They should be innovative.
I would like to give you a couple of examples from our patent authority from Eurasia, which did contribute to sustainable and energy efficient development of cities.
If we're talking about solution number 11, it is about sustainability.
Sustainable development of the cities.
Here we are talking about affordability of housing in terms of cost for housing.
The solution that has been developed is three D printing of housing, which will allow us to be more ecological, avoid drilling and protect natural resources.
This is a complete new approach in construction and it is a solution that could be used long term.
Within the solution, the absolutely new three D printers are considered and this type of housing will be modular, so will be changeable as well.
The patent that has been given out for this solution allows the three D printer to print a house and then build it like a legal.
Just remember, in your childhood, you were playing with separate blocks, and this is basically how it will be working.
This is a very cost efficient solution for sustainable housing.
Can you imagine if there are regions that can be impacted by earthquakes? The quick and operative solution for rebuilding is necessary and this could be one.
We are lucky as an authority to get the applications for this kind of patents.
We've found out and recognized that it is not only making the construction easy, it also increases the stability of the housing because there is another solution for reinforcing the roof of this modular building.
Something that is being practiced already and this solution is very successful.
So we can be more cost efficient, we can reduce expenses, we can be more sustainable that way.
Another task that is in front of us, a challenge also aligned to SDG is 11.3, is the new solutions for urban areas.
The development of new technologies and usage of new technologies such as AI, which can and should be used in city development and housing.
And I see here at the forum a lot of stakeholders, a lot of ministers, a lot of mayors.
The speeches are impressive, but unfortunately, none of the mayors is able right now to make a solution, to come up with a solution without the newest technologies such as AI.
So you are requiring this new technologies because this is something that would make our planning so much more exact, so much more holistic, We also see that it is very relevant topic and we will be discussing it at our next session at 1:30.
We will dive into it.
In more details, we will be talking about innovative modeling and construction using digital technology.
All these words that I'm pronouncing, all this formula that I'm mentioning As I said, we will be diving into the details within our next session at 1:30, I would like to invite you to that session as well.
It is often said that patent is a barrier, is a problem, is a challenge, but the actual goal of a patent is to open the door for the developers to actually provide the society with the solution.
And this is exactly something what we are doing.
We are allowing construction companies, construction developers to see and to show their ideas and solutions.
I wish all the colleagues that are in this area are in the sectors, please find a solution, and I hope you can contribute to the sustainable development of your regions and countries.
Thank you very much for sharing.
Yes, it was very important indeed to have your perspective about the role of innovation and intellectual property in what we are addressing today.
Thank you very much.
1:30, whoever is available, I think it's a very good idea to join.
Absolutely.
Thank you.
We have 3 minutes left and I thought that we could do a quick fire roundup question for all of you in 1 minute, please.
If you could tell me.
According to you, what is the single most important shift needed to finance climate resilient housing without deepening inequity? Inequality.
Please, I will start with you, misses O'Grady.
Thank you.
I think I will just go briefly through my second question.
I think finance, we at the European Bank have come here to talk about financing.
I think going back to the three points here, the point that Edgar made in the first panel, one size does not fit all.
Countries or different cities are different.
The second thing is bringing down the cost of borrowing, de risking projects, housing projects included with grants, concessional loans, guarantees.
The third thing is, and it's been brought up in this panel, identifying the co benefits so that people really see what the benefits are of making a house more resilient, connecting the projects to the NDCs, all this good work that UN habitat has done.
They're my three takeaways.
Fantastic.
Thank you very much.
Mayor, I would like to turn to you now very quickly in less than a minute.
What is the single most important shift that you would like to see? The data is the most important aspect.
Data.
Like the colleague has mentioned, to know the size of the problem, to be able to determine its different aspects and to provide different solutions for different societies.
Data is important.
Indicators as well are important.
What are the real indicators leading to the real solutions? The last important thing is new technologies, AI, the information revolution, the technical revolution that's taking place already today.
How do we take advantage of that in order to reach solutions? This will provide the great shift That is very important that we need in the cities in order to come up with solutions that are outside the box, if we can say it like that.
Solutions outside the box to deal with these specific problems.
Fantastic.
And the last word to you, please, sir.
In my opinion, we need to diminish the negative impact of cities on people's lives.
People may live in huge mansions or in a flat or in a small tiny house, but this person will feel comfortable only when the environment surrounding him is clean.
That's why, for example, we promote patents that impact the ecological impact, green technologies equal equity because, for example, they diminish the costs and save energy.
For example, I issue patents on floating power stations, and this is a way to provide access to electricity to a person residing in some remote area.
But also, for example, some insulation patents we've issued recently that actually help people living in big cities helping them to save energy and also not to hear noise from their members.
I think we need to improve the comfort and healthy environment.
The comfort we have one size doesn't fit all thinking outside the box.
These are very, very powerful fruitful thoughts that you've given us today.
Thank you very much.
I feel very privileged to have sat with you today and I enjoy the rest of the forum.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Ladies and gentlemen, we actually have a very interactive session for you right now.
There's going to be a QR code shown behind me on the screen.
Please grab your phones.
There we go.
We're going to go through five key facts that everyone should know about the housing climate nexus.
Let's see how well you know about what we are discussing here today.
Is everyone ready? What share of global greenhouse gas emissions comes from the built environment? This is always a dangerous question to ask because I know that many of us immediately think transports may be planes and most of us anyway have taken the plane to come here today.
We rarely think about our home.
Think about the room that we woke up in in the morning, the heating, the cooling, the lights, the construction materials, the energy behind it all.
Imagine this multiplied millions of times across the globe.
Do we have the answer? Still thinking? Yeah, 37%.
Well, it's good actually, the majority of you knew about it.
Well done.
That's roughly one third of global energy related C two emissions come from the built material.
Now, how many people were forced to move out of their homes due to climate disasters last year? What do you think? Because climate change, of course, is also changing something very personal, that is where people leave and often whether people can actually stay where they were born.
Let's see how many people the room thinks were forced to move out of their homes due to climate disasters in 2025.
There we are.
The right answer was nearly 30 million people.
It's quite frightening actually, very impressive and the reason why we are here, things really need to change.
About 30% of the room got that right.
Let's move to the third question.
What share of the new national climate plans now include cities? What do you think? 20%, 40%, 60% or 80%? Because for years, cities sat a little on the sidelines of climate conversations, but as we've seen, they really need to come at the forefront of this conversation.
What do you think? Well, 80% One hose.
Are we still thinking? 17% of the room said one half, 23%? Are we getting closer? Well, the share of the new national climate plans that include cities has risen from 49% in the last round to 80% this time around.
Number four, how many new national climate plans include housing on informal settlement? I'm sure that if I ask people to answer, they probably talk about energy transport, maybe forests, while the answer is C one half, 49%.
Drawing from UN habitats newly launched report, I am pleased to share that 46% of recent climate plans now include housing or informal settlements.
45% of the room actually got this right.
This is quite impressive, but the numbers are still shifting.
And please use this QR code to read about these very interesting reports that launched here yesterday and when you can hear and read about all the different shifts that happened and how much progress we are making.
Well, the data really speak with a lot of clarity.
I hope that this was insightful.
Now, for our final panel discussion, it is my pleasure now to give the mic to doctor Babatunde Ansy, UN resident coordinator in Turkey.
I'll leave you the mic.
A big round of applause for our next moderator.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Really glad to have the opportunity to moderate this very important panel on building the cities and homes of the future today.
As the Executive Director of UN Habitat indicated, The cities and homes of the future will only happen if we plan our communities, our cities and build our houses in ways that are climate and nature informed.
On that note, let me call to the stage our distinguished panelists.
First, miss Shruti Nan, Managing Director, Regions and Mayoral Engagement at C 40 Cities Alliance.
Welcome.
Please welcome her to the state.
Let me also invite miss Big Pickel, Director General, Sustainable Development and Climate at the German Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development.
Welcome, Madam Pickel.
And finally, let me welcome Mr.
Agakarm Samsez, First Deputy Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources of the Republic of Azerbijan.
Is he here? On the way.
The honorable first deputy minister is on the way, but we should get going and when he gets here, we'll introduce them.
Dear delegates, climate change is fundamentally reshaping patterns of human settlement, increasingly exposing communities to intensifying heat stress, flooding, sea level rises, and extreme weather events while placing housing, infrastructure, and neighborhoods under escalating climate related risks.
At the same time, their delegates the housing and construction sector is a major contributor to global greenhouse emissions, as we saw in the data exercise, accounting for a significant share of global energy consumption and carbon emissions across the life cycle.
So my expectation for this panel is that we would clearly examine and bring some clarity on packing to the issue of how housing systems can be decarbonized while simultaneously enhancing climate resilience and reducing vulnerability to climate hazards.
The panel that we also hope will really fruitfully explore pathways for aligning housing policy with mitigation and adaptation objectives, including low carbon and energy efficient construction practices, secular and resource efficient building materials, and the integration of nature based solutions to strengthen our resilience and ecosystems functionality.
In all of this, we would not really have a wholesome climate housing nexus if We do not ensure that climate responsive housing strategies are inclusive, that they do safeguard the rights, the needs, and the adaptive capabilities of vulnerable and marginalized communities.
On that note, let me ask the first question to the MD of the regions and Major engagement at C 40 cities, miss Narayan.
My first question is, how can nature based solutions be systematically integrated into housing policies and projects to address climate resilience, the issue of biodiversity loss, and urban livability, over to you.
So thank you for that question.
And from C 40 cities perspective, we are about 100 cities globally that are a part of our network that have committed to a very high level of climate ambition.
So the first step we believe in incorporating nature based solutions systemically is to be data driven and evidence based.
It's absolutely critical to understand the city's context and what kind of nature based solution the city needs and where, which we believe comes from a climate action planning approach which looks at mitigation and resilience.
Then it starts looking at systemic integration of nature based solutions as a part of its urban planning or delivery because that is the critical part of delivering climate resilient cities, but also providing good social infrastructure for housing.
Because as we have learned over the last couple of days of discussions that you can't look at them separately.
You have to look at climate resilience and housing together.
We have examples of many cities that have looked at, for example, Sao Paolo has been looking at an example of when the plot of the building is more than 500 square meters, they have to allocate a certain percentage for making it permeable, which is integrating resilience in a very systemic way, but also ensuring that you are potentially also creating funds sometimes through taxation for allowing cities to incorporate nature based solutions.
We've also seen cities like Medine that have come back later and recognized the fact that their cities don't incorporate as much green and built greening and urban regeneration as a part of it.
Green corridors have been an example that many cities across the world are doing.
Thank you very much.
I think the importance of evidence and data to guide everything that we do in this space is a key point.
But let me turn to miss Pickle.
What are your thoughts on the same issue? How can nature based solutions be systematically integrated into housing policy and projects? Thank you very much for the question and good morning everybody.
Let me start by following up on what Truti already mentioned.
I'm in Nature based solutions has been a concept around for quite some time and it's not an add on, it's not a luxury, but it's something to be integrated early on in the planning cycle in urban planning, and spatial planning, and so on.
I think this planning aspect uh, is very, very, very, very important because you have to think it in advance if you really want to make it work.
Just three quick things to go a bit deeper.
First, embedded urban planning.
I mean, this really means, integrated land use planning, building standards, and infrastructure design.
So this is sort of the conceptual part that you have to take into consideration.
And let me give you an example from back home in Germany.
There is the concept of the so called sponge city, which has become one of the guiding principles for urban development in those cities that are really prone to flooding, for example.
But it also includes the whole issue of cooling, prevention against flooding but also prevention against heat and to integrate that early on.
We are also working with partner countries, for example, in Mexico and also Morocco on such approaches and in the end, integrating nature based solutions and early on planning in the national policies, for example, on construction frameworks.
That's where it all starts.
Though we know policies need to be implemented, there's a lot that needs to be followed, having that conceptual design in place is really important.
Second issue I wanted to mention is also technical capacity and data.
Today, communities, municipalities, governments really have technology at hand to early on analyze, for example, um, proneness to flooding, proneness to heat, what I mentioned earlier, the data systems are really there.
You can map cities, you can map quarters and cities, you can map roofs and where to place the adequate technology, nature based solutions like greening roofs for cooling and all these things we know about.
There is a center in Hamburg, also in Germany, UTC, which I would like to mention in this context.
A center that focuses specifically on innovations on such technologies with the urban lens, with the digital lens, and with the climate lens.
I think this is a good example of, um, how planning, policy, and technology can work together.
The last point I wanted to mention when it comes to nature based solutions, of course, when we have a good strategy, we have a good concept, in the end, it also comes down to finance.
Municipalities really need to be empowered financially to put these good solutions, many of which we know into practice.
So, um, We see, for example, in budgets at the moment and also in infrastructure planning, that the integration of nature based solutions is not yet as integrated as a normal construction of a road or a normal building, a school that municipalities have been doing for many, many years.
You need to work on the financial frameworks at the municipal level and the policies around that so that early on integration of nature based solutions, and of course, providing the money in the budgets is actually provided for.
The C 40 cities Finance facility, for example, in Salvador and Brazil is one example where we as the German government has been supporting um, the upgrading of an informal settlement exactly in this regard.
That facility also provides the necessary finance to support that specific municipality here to in the end, scale a nature based solution, which is not only an environmental question, I want to say.
Good morning, but it is really about building better and healthier communities for all of us.
Thank you.
You very much.
I think the points about integration, data and technical assistance for municipalities and of course, finance.
At the end of the day, nature based solutions will never really be fully scaled up and implemented at the speed that we all want unless we have the financing.
On that note, let me welcome the First Deputy Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources of the Republic of Azerbijan, Mr.
Hagar Karim Samar zadth, thank you for joining us.
Maybe I should just put you on the spot immediately by asking you to reflect on how nature based solutions can be systematically integrated into housing policies and projects to address climate resilience, biodiversity loss, and urban livability.
Over to you, Honorable professor Deputy Minister.
Thank you very much.
Thank you very much.
Dear guests, very welcome.
It's very nice to meet all of you here.
As we see it starts for each country's vision.
Thank you for your question.
I think it starts with each country vision for building sustainable and climate resilient cities.
Today's cities are on the front line of climate change and around approximately 58% of the world population live in the cities and urban areas are increasingly exposed to heat waves, fluids, water shortage, and other climate related risks.
At the same time, the nature is also under growing pressure.
That's why nature based solutions should be part of housing policies and urban development projects.
We need to keep a clear balance between city growth and nature protection.
In my view, nature based solution should be included at every stage of urban planning, from the master plan and zoning to construction and long term maintenance.
Azerbijan is already applying this approach in its housing and urban development policies.
The socioeconomic development strategy 2022 and 2026 and its extension to 2030 define clean environment and green growth as a national priorities.
Under the Great Return Program, Azerbijan is also developing green energy zones, smart city and smart village concepts, and ecosystem restoration in lib territories.
Together with the Republic of Turkey, Azerbijan has also established a ceiling center in Jabril and the center will support greening activities in Karaba and Eastern Zhang Gizul.
Azerbijan has recently submitted its A&DC 30, and it's now preparing its long term low emission development strategy.
To achieve these goals, nature based solutions and ecosystem restoration will be very important.
This is also why World Invertan Day hosted by Azerbijan this year will be held under the slogan, inspired by nature, for climate, for our future.
Thank you very much and glad that you've reinforced some of the points that were made earlier by the other panelists, the importance of integrating nature based solutions right from the design stage throughout the various stages of the urban planning and management process.
But I think the key point was the preface that you made that it starts with the overall national vision of development and especially urban development.
That's an important point that we always leave out in some of these discussions.
We go straight into you know, implementation, the solutions, but the solutions have to be inspired by a vision.
But a big challenge that we face is that of informal settlements and slumps, especially in lower middle income countries and low income countries.
It's a big problem, and whatever we do, nature based solutions will not be proven until they work.
In informal settlements and slum upgrading initiatives.
Can I basically have your thoughts, miss Narayan, on the issue of how can informal settlements and slum upgrading initiatives be designed to incorporate climate change considerations, including safe sites, land tenure issues, and resilient services, neighborhood level cooling and so on.
Over to you.
Um, thank you.
So I think firstly, just setting some context, data shows that climate impacts are deeply regressive.
We have structurally concentrated them in global South because and climate is a justice issue.
C 40 research has revealed that by 2015, over 250 million poor urban residents in nearly across 500 cities are going to be in the front line of disaster.
We can imagine the scale of the problem that we're dealing with.
So one has to look at this again in a very systemic way.
Some of the things that you outlined.
First is being able to again, we go back to data.
Data is very critical.
Climate action plans and using mapping exercises can demonstrate to us where are the vulnerable informal settlements and what would be the possible impacts that they would see based on the city.
What are the risks that the city has? For example, heat, flooding, sea level rises, whatever, and how will they impact the informal settlements? That gives us data and evidence to then, one, look at in C two development that exists in the city today and how that can be upgraded.
Which means do people need to be moved to better respectable locations within the city or there needs to be upgradation happen either within the informal settlement or, for example, you know, preparing or improving the coastal flood lines, et cetera.
Look at the ins to development.
But the second is it, This data also informs us planning as my co panelists outlined that urban planning is a very, very critical tool for determining how the city grows.
When we are talking about this issue of informal settlements and vulnerable, they also tend to exist in Global South, which is also fast growing cities.
Urban planning gives us a very good mechanism of ensuring that we are addressing some of these needs in terms of land use planning, but also blue green infrastructure and where it's being placed and how we are making sure that these settlements have access to proper infrastructure should disaster strike.
Now the second aspect is then also doing pilots.
Sea 40 City has been working with several partners where we have done pilots around neighborhood improvement plans, which includes looking at greening or how can you take infill areas and create spaces? That's also about placemaking that we've been talking about.
It's not just about creating security, but also it's creating a happiness or a moment of people living around some of these areas.
Then the other measure is looking at aspects of climate resilience and mitigation, which could be, how can you provide better housing that is achieving the thermal comfort that people deserve, the energy access that people deserve, the water access that people deserve and some of the initiatives that we have seen in Global South and just a couple of them is cool roofs, for example.
Many cities in Global South have been looking at providing this layer of, you know, like a reflective paint, which not only helps in creating a better indoor thermal comfort, but also reduces the urban heat island effect in that settlement and reduces the heat and provides for better and healthier environments.
So there are many different ways of looking at incorporating slum upgradation and informal settlements when you look at climate resilience.
Thank you very much for your, insights.
I think the key thing that I take is the importance of data and of piloting.
Whatever you do is really addressing the needs of the particular informal settlement or SUM, the context matters.
You cannot have a one size fits all.
Data and piloting is so key.
Let me turn to you, miss Pickel the same question, your experience with your thoughts on informal settlements and SLU upgrading initiatives.
Thank you.
I think a lot has been said.
I just want to politically underline the importance really of highlighting the number of people living in informal settlements, particularly in global south countries, and the challenge ahead to really address the issue of urban upgrading in a resilient manner.
It's enormous.
But just because it's enormous, one cannot avoid the question, but you have to work in the settlements and see how you can, um, um, really improve the situation there.
I'm saying this because it's really much in line with the leave no one behind principle of the Agenda 2030, and it's in line with taking issues like land tenure, for example, as a basis for um, you know, ownership for investment by people into their properties, into the housing, whether it's informal or formal.
Seriously, it's a basis for enabling community participation and also long term service provision in those communities.
Upgrading that ignores these dimensions will just not be sustainable.
That would be my first point.
Having said that, in addition, for Um, as I said, for us, if we take the development aspect seriously, land tenure is an issue I wanted to highlight.
I mean, if you live with the current risk of being evicted from your informal settlement, you don't have a good basis for upgrading.
That is a key issue that needs to be addressed in the end by municipalities.
Once people have that security, they do start investing.
Then municipalities and also partners like also German Development Cooperation and others can actually see how that can be done in a climate resilient, forward looking way.
As I already mentioned, in C two, slum upgrading should be the starting point from our perspective wherever possible.
We've already discussed how important it is to integrate the climate aspect, the resilience aspect early on in the planning phase, the data are there.
We can use them.
Let's put them to good use on flood risk assessments, on drainage systems, on cooling strategies, green public spaces that do make settlements livable, that give children a place to play.
All of these things are very, very important and need to be integrated early on.
Third aspect, resilient services.
I mean, if you want to upgrade, it's not only housing, it is housing, but it's also the whole system of services around water, around power, electricity, waste management, and so on that need to be integrated early on.
And I think partnerships, for example, like the OPA partnership that looks at, at water suppliers and water companies are very good model to look at how you can really provide these integrated services also in the informal settlement at a standard and according to the environment as Roti already mentioned that fits the specific settlement.
Last point, partnership is key.
I think community involvement involvement of the people actually living in the communities, making them part of the planning and the decision making is a very important point.
Let me highlight a publication around this whole issue of urban settlements, of upgrading that was launched at the African Urban Forum in April, organized by the African Union, the Urban Resilience in Africa Flagship report, I think it's worth reading.
Um, it's been published and it addresses many of the issues we have been discussing here on this forum as well.
I think this specific regional perspective is very important because the situation on the African continent, for example, is very different in many areas from other there are very specific issues to be addressed.
So that regional perspective is very, very important to take forward this important agenda.
Thank you very much.
Thank you very much.
I noticed that you started with a point about leaving no one behind and a the end, you also tied it in the importance of really involving the people that live in these settlements themselves in the process of upgrading the centrality of nel, of course, without tan, you can't really upgrade in a sustainable way and financing and partnerships.
A lessons, honorable Deputy Minister, we can learn from Azerbijan on this whole issue of informal settlements in a way that incorporates climate change considerations over to you.
This question is really very actual and as my co panelists notes before, the people living in informal settlements are among the most vulnerable to climate change.
They are more exposed to heat weather flows, water shortage, and other risks.
For this reason, upgrading such settlements should also include climate adaptation measures.
This means that people should live in safer areas, have more secure access to basic services, and benefit from better infrastructure.
In Azerbaijan, this approach is also reflected on the NDC 30 National Adaptation Plan for socioeconomic Development Strategy for 22 26 and also the Great Return Program for the liberated territories.
On this case, priorities is the development of multi hazard early warning system.
This is also a in line with the UN Secretary-General early warnings for all initiatives.
The main idea is simple.
Climate resiliency must cover everyone, especially vulnerable communities.
For cities such as Baku and Somait, practical measures can include more green areas, tree planting, shaded public spaces, energy efficient buildings, better insulation and water saving systems.
These solutions can reduce heat, improve air quality, lower flow risks, and make urban life healthier and more comfortable.
Taking into account limited financial resources, Azerbijan should focus on low cost but high impact solutions.
These include green public spaces, efficient use of water, better building insulation, and community based urban planning.
Such measures can support climate adaptation, reduce emissions, and strengthen social resilience at the same time.
Thank you.
Thank you very much reinforcing some of the key points that have been made earlier.
I know we're running out of time, so I'm just going to give each of you a minute to basically Tell us what you see from your perspective, what does a climate resilient, low carbon and inclusive city look like in practice from your own experience? Maybe if you don't mind, should you start.
It's I mean, hard to say, but also maybe easy to say it in a minute.
We believe that good cities that are well planned will be climate resilient and happy places where people are thriving, they're economically, also thriving and they're healthy.
Just reiterating that we need to embed solutions in urban planning and look at the city's growth and look at everybody involved and not just look at climate as a standalone, but the paradigm shift of climate now becoming a lens of how we're looking at our economy, our health, and the vulnerable population.
Thank you very much.
Let me come to you.
In your own case, she has described what the city will look like.
Let's take it as a pilot.
How do you scale that up, miss Baker? Scaling up such cities.
Scaling up.
Scaling up, I think it's never easy, but what I can say is that scaling up is possible because we actually know what to do.
It's not like we don't know the answer, so the question really is on how do you move to implementation.
It's not a distant vision, the climate resilient city, but we know what it looks like.
Scaling up is really about sharing the knowledge.
It's about vision, it's about political will.
And about putting in place the necessary finance to make that vision happen.
To close, it's not about isolated projects, but it's really about an integrated long term approach in planning, implementation, and financing behind it.
Thank you very much.
Honorable Deputy Minister, your thoughts on this? What does a climate resilient low carbon and inclusive city look like for you and how do we scale that up? A climate resilient, low carbon and inclusive city is a city where people can live safely, comfortably, and with equal opportunities.
Such a city should have strong and sustainable infrastructure, affordable and energy efficient homes, accessible public transport, green public spaces and service that can withstand climate risks.
Achieve these strong law and clear policies are needed, different government institution, the private sector and other partners should work together in a coordinately way.
It is important to avoid separate and disconnected actions.
In Azerbaijan, these issues are coordinated at a high level through the State Climate Commission under the Cabinet of Ministers.
To scale up this work, we need to move from small pilot projects to wider transformation across in cities.
Climate goals should be included in economic planning, urban development, and public policies.
This will help cities become more resilient, low carbon, and socially inclusive.
At a global level, such solution can be expanded through accessible climate finance and technology transfer.
And this regarding Bo finance, goal agreed at CP 29 is especially important.
Thank you very much to all our panelists for really sharing practical insights on how to get to to these cities of the future, the importance of vision, planning, integration, partnerships, inclusion, listening to those who are most impacted by climate change in urban settlements, and of course, I think the part about political will and financing.
We do have the the solutions going forward, and I hope that all of this will be reflected in the Baku call to action.
So thank you so very much and thank you to our colleagues in the audience as well for joining us for this very exciting panel.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you once again for being with us today in the room and also online.
Let's keep the momentum going.
Thank you very much for this very interesting session.
Let's stay inspired and let's make sure that today's discussion in fact become tomorrow's action.
Enjoy the rest of the forum.
It was a pleasure to be your guide today and good afternoon, bye.
Thank you.
Thank you.