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  • Cities and Climate Solutions | Food

    Cities and Climate Solutions | Food

    April 19, 2023 | Online event | 12:00 p.m. (New York) | 1:00 p.m. (Rio de Janeiro) | 6:00 p.m. (Paris) | In English

    In the face of the climate crisis, cities across the world are emerging as integral problem-solvers in the development of an effective, multi-layered response. This webinar aims to discuss some of the most impactful and sustainable urban food safety and security actions. It will take the form of an online dialogue between city officials from New York City, Rio de Janeiro, and Milan and center on how cities design and manage their food policies. The discussion will be moderated by City Diplomacy Lab Director Lorenzo Kihlgren Grandi.

    The webinar is the second in a series of three entitled “Cities and Climate Solutions.” The series celebrates the leadership of cities and provides inspiration for the thousands of cities and local governments around the world committed to shaping the global response to climate change.

    Cities and Climate Solutions is a collaboration between the City Diplomacy Lab and Columbia Global Centers | Paris. This event is also co-sponsored by Columbia Global Centers | Rio de Janeiro.

    Speakers:

    Rio de Janeiro | Thalyta Ferraz is an internationalist with experience in managing research projects internationally funded and, since May 2022, stepping forward as a local diplomacy advisor at the City of Rio de Janeiro. As part of the Rio’s International Department office, she has been advocating for public policies, development, and rights-based international agenda, along with international organizations and cities’ networks, such as C-40, UCLG, UCCI, IOPD, and the Milan Pact, for which she was directly involved in the conceptualization and organization of its global forum hosted in Rio in 2022. Thalyta holds an MA in International Relations from the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (2015). In 2020, she concluded a four-month professional advancement fellowship at the MGG Academy (DIE/Germany), shifting areas from project to knowledge management, seeking shared problem-solving methods, conflict mediation, and supporting the co-creation, diffusion, and application of knowledge between organizations.

    New York | Milagros de Hoz currently serves as a Senior Policy Advisor at the Mayor’s Office of Food Policy, where she is responsible for advancing MOFP’s work in the intersection of food, environment, and climate. She works across City agencies and with local, state, and regional leaders to advance sustainable and low-carbon food initiatives and represents NYC in national and international coalitions that focus on these efforts. Milagros is also responsible for reporting on progress towards the goals set in Food Forward NYC, the city’s ambitious 10-year food policy plan. Prior to joining MOFP, Milagros worked as a research scientist at the Office of Research and Policy Innovation at the NYC Department of Social Services. Previously, Milagros focused on environmental justice, leading community-based participatory research initiatives, and managing a vast and varied portfolio of environmental health programs. Milagros received a Bachelor’s in Biology, with a concentration in plant genetics from the University of Buenos Aires, and a Master’s in Environmental Policy and Sustainability Management from the New School.

    Milan | Elisa Porreca is a Food Policy officer with the City of Milan. She graduated in Linguistic and Cultural Mediation and then studied food system issues at the Master Food & Society. She started working for the Municipality of Milan in 2017, focusing on a range of issues for the Milan food system, in particular the reduction of food waste and food aid systems answering to food poverty. In parallel, she contributed to the drafting and implementation of European projects on food policies and the exchange of knowledge with international cities active on sustainable food systems. She is now serving as project officer for the European Food Trails project.


    About Columbia Global Centers | Paris

    For nearly sixty years, Columbia University students and faculty have come to study, teach, or pursue their research at Reid Hall, an exceptional space in the world of international education and cultural exchange. Our public events draw on the rich resources of the Columbia campus and our local partners, creating a “third space” of intellectual exploration and research that resists easy categorization. Our workshops, lectures, and performances bring together a diverse audience to address pressing issues through creative, rigorous, and open dialogue.

    Today, Reid Hall is home to several Columbia University initiatives: Columbia Global Centers | ParisColumbia Undergraduate ProgramsM.A. in History and LiteratureColumbia’s architecture program, and the Institute for Ideas and Imagination. This unique combination of resources is enhanced by our global network, whose mission is to expand the University’s engagement the world over through educational programs, research collaborations, regional partnerships, and public events.

    For more information about Columbia Global Centers | Paris, please visit https://globalcenters.columbia.edu/paris.

    About City Diplomacy Lab

    Launched in September 2021, the City Diplomacy Lab is a special project of Columbia Global Centers | Paris. The Lab aims to foster the understanding and practice of city diplomacy, which forges international collaborations between cities to promote sustainable development and peace while providing responses to challenges such as climate change, rising inequality, and migration.

    The Lab’s work, which includes applied research, capacity building, and event organization, has been officially recognized by the United Nations Regional Commission for Europe (UNECE) and awarded the designation of Center of Excellence on City Diplomacy and Sustainable Urban Development.

    In addition to the UN, the Lab engages on a daily basis with multiple municipalities around the world, city networks, universities, and other international organizations. The Lab also benefits from the resources of the network of 10 Columbia Global Centers around the world.

    The views and opinions expressed by speakers and guests do not necessarily reflect the official policies or positions of Columbia Global Centers | Paris and its affiliates.

  • International relations students share their take on city networks’ impact

    International relations students share their take on city networks’ impact

    What is the added value and impact of international city networks? Sciences Po – PSIA graduate students answer such a question through weekly episodes of the City Diplomacy Student Podcast.

    The podcast’s ongoing 5th season features insight into the Cities Coalition for Digital Rights, Cities4Forests, ICCAR, and Mayors for Peace. Upcoming episodes will focus on the Mayors Migration Council, the Milan Urban Food Policy Pact, the Partnership for Healthy Cities, and POLIS.

     

    Launched in 2020 by City Diplomacy Lab director Dr. Lorenzo Kihlgren Grandi to facilitate his students’ group work during the COVID-19 lockdown, the podcast contributes to knowledge sharing and critical thinking around the rapidly expanding practice of international city-to-city partnerships.

    Previous seasons of the podcast are available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Soundcloud.

  • Cities leading the transformation: SDGs in action and the new multilateralism

    Cities leading the transformation: SDGs in action and the new multilateralism

    A round table of the Regional Forum on Sustainable Development for the UNECE region | 29 March 2023 from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. CET | Hybrid format both in presence at conference room XIX, Palais des Nations, Geneva and online | Interpretation in English, French, and Russian.

    Approximately 75% of emissions originate from cities, whilst by 2050, urban areas are expected to house over two-thirds of the global population. Cities will therefore play a critical role in the push to achieve sustainable development. Cities are also the site of tackling complex local issues such as housing, energy, transportation, waste and water management, disaster risk reduction, air pollution, population aging, urban mobility, urban food systems, and many others. Returning the famous phrase “Think Global, Act Local” to its origin in urban planning, this session will highlight the multiple levels at which cities operate, from policies and action at the local level driving forward solutions and positive change to forging strategic international partnerships to increase their relevance and impact in global matters. The session will include senior figures from municipal bodies across the region who will share experiences on specific actions and projects undertaken to meet the relevant SDG 11 targets, as well as representatives from international strategic partnerships who will speak to this city-based ‘new multilateralism.’

    The roundtable is organized by the UNECE Forests, Land and Housing Division in cooperation with UN-Habitat Geneva Liaison Office and will feature the participation of Dr. Lorenzo Kihlgren Grandi, founding director of the City Diplomacy Lab, a UNECE Center of Excellence on Sustainable Urban Development.

     

    The Regional Forum on Sustainable Development for the UNECE region is a broadly recognized platform that has brought together a growing number of actors and groups since its first stand-alone session in 2017.

    Representatives of national and local governments, as well as of civil society, youth, businesses, international and regional organizations, academia, and parliamentarians, will participate in and contribute to the Regional Forum.

    To find out more about the Regional Forum, please visit this page.

  • Cities and Climate Solutions | Water

    Cities and Climate Solutions | Water

    March 22, 2023 | Online event | 10:00 a.m. (Los Angeles) | 1:00 p.m. (New York) | 6:00 p.m. (Paris) | 8:00 p.m. (Amman) | In English

    In the face of the climate crisis, cities across the world are emerging as integral problem-solvers in the development of an effective, multi-layered response. This webinar will bring together the representatives of three global cities facing unique water challenges: Los Angeles, Paris, and Amman. How are these cities dealing with (or preparing to deal with) increasingly severe water crises such as drought, floods, and water pollution?

    The webinar is the first in a series of three entitled Cities and Climate Solutions. Subsequent webinars will cover food and energy. The series will celebrate the leadership of cities and provide inspiration for the thousands of cities and local governments around the world committed to shaping the global response to climate change.

    This series is a collaboration between the City Diplomacy Lab and Columbia Global Centers | Paris.

    This event is co-sponsored by Columbia Global Centers | Amman.

  • UNECE recognizes the City Diplomacy Lab as a Center of Excellence

    UNECE recognizes the City Diplomacy Lab as a Center of Excellence

    19 January 2023

    The United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) and Columbia Global Centers | Paris (CGC|Paris), one of the ten global centers of Columbia University in the City of New York, signed a Memorandum of Understanding recognizing the City Diplomacy Lab at CGC|Paris as a UNECE Centre of Excellence in France.  

    The cooperation between UNECE and the City Diplomacy Lab will contribute to the development and implementation of collaborative activities and projects to promote the principles of the Geneva UN Charter on Sustainable Housing. As a Centre of Excellence, the City Diplomacy Lab will provide municipalities in the UNECE region and worldwide with best practices, research, support, and training in the areas of city diplomacy and smart sustainable urban development.  

    UNECE Executive Secretary, Olga Algayerova, emphasized: “This is an additional step towards inclusive city diplomacy and multilateralism. We at UNECE are glad to join forces with the City Diplomacy Lab to further reinforce our engagement with cities and look forward to cooperating on critical urban development challenges in the region”.  

    “We are delighted and honored to have the City Diplomacy Lab recognized by the United Nations as a Centre of Excellence,” said CGC | Paris Director Brunhilde Biebuyck. “With multiple crises affecting urban communities worldwide, city-to-city collaboration is more critical than ever.” City Diplomacy Lab Director Lorenzo Kihlgren Grandi said: “The recognition of City Diplomacy Lab as a Centre of Excellence will help us scale up our efforts in empowering cities to address issues including climate change, rising inequalities, migration, and food insecurity. Today’s challenges are global in nature and primarily urban in impact.”   

    UNECE and the City Diplomacy Lab will cooperate to support the implementation of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), especially SDG 11: to make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable. The partnership aims to strengthen the capacity of cities to actively contribute to the “more inclusive multilateralism” called for by the Secretary-General of the United Nations, António Guterres, which the UNECE Forum of Mayors is putting into action. 

    Specific activities that will be undertaken by the City Diplomacy Lab will include training curriculum development; capacity-building and publications on city diplomacy and smart sustainable urban strategies; and the organization and hosting of meetings to disseminate information about UNECE and the Geneva UN Charter at international, national, and subnational levels. 

    To facilitate the work of the City Diplomacy Lab as a Centre of Excellence, UNECE will encourage the exchange of information, knowledge, and experience within the network, as well as with relevant international and national organizations in the UNECE region and facilitate cooperation and exchange between the Centres of Excellence. 


    Note to editors  

    About UNECE  

    The United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) was established in 1947 by the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC). It is one of five regional commissions of the United Nations.  

    The major aim of UNECE is to promote pan-European economic integration. UNECE includes fifty-six member States in Europe, North America, and Asia. However, all interested United Nations member States may participate in the work of UNECE. Over seventy international professional organizations and other non-governmental organizations take part in UNECE activities.  

    For further information on the work of the Committee on Urban Development, Housing and Land Management, please consult http://unece.org/housing/committee.  

     

    About Columbia Global Centers | Paris  

    Columbia Global Centers | Paris is part of a network of ten global centers of Columbia University in the City of New York, one of the world’s leading academic institutions. The centers serve as knowledge hubs that aim to educate and inspire through research, dialogue, and action.  

    Located at historic Reid Hall, which was gifted to Columbia University in 1964, CGC | Paris partners with regional and international institutions to engage students, faculty, alumni, and the public across borders and disciplines. 

    For further information on CGC | Paris, please visit https://globalcenters.columbia.edu/paris.   

     

    About City Diplomacy Lab  

    Launched in September 2021, the City Diplomacy Lab is a special project of CGC | Paris that fosters the design and implementation of effective local solutions to the world’s multiple crises. The Lab strives to enhance the understanding and practice of city diplomacy, which forges international collaborations between cities to promote sustainable development and peace while jointly addressing challenges such as climate change, rising inequalities, and migration. 

    The Lab’s action, which includes applied research, capacity-building, and public programming, is implemented through numerous collaborations with municipalities worldwide, city networks, universities, and international organizations. The Lab also benefits from the resources of the Columbia Global Centers network. 

    For further information on the City Diplomacy Lab, please visit https://www.citydiplomacylab.net

  • Celebrating decentralized cooperation projects connecting Europe to the world

    Celebrating decentralized cooperation projects connecting Europe to the world

    Everywhere in the world, city diplomacy owes its expansion primarily to the determination of a growing number of municipalities to emulate the impact of its most successful applications.

    This is particularly true in the context of decentralized cooperation, a term for the wide range of partnerships through which cities collaborate internationally to further the development of areas of the world most in need. 
    In a global context where inequalities within and across national borders are sharpening considerably, it seems particularly useful to identify and celebrate methodologies that have stood out for their impact on the ground so that they can help guide the evolution of this practice.

    This is precisely why PLATFORMA, the platform dedicated to development cooperation promoted by the Council of European Municipalities and Regions and supported by the European Union, organizes the PLATFORMAwards. This annual prize aims to identify and celebrate the best practices of decentralized cooperation fostering the realization of the 2030 Agenda jointly implemented by European local communities and those in partner countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America, Eastern Europe, and the Middle East.

    The award ceremony for the third edition of the prize was held on December 6, 2022, in Grenoble, France.

    As explained by Dr. Lorenzo Kihlgren Grandi, City Diplomacy Lab director and PLATFORMAwards jury member, the awarded projects owe much of their success to their “proven ability to actively engage the residents that benefit from them. The latter, far from being mere recipients, become true partners in the project’s design and implementation.”

    These are the 2022 winners:

    1st prize: Belgian Federal Programme for Communal International Cooperation (PCIC) between Anderlecht (Belgium) and Marsassoum (Senegal).

    This is the second phase of a program begun in 2017 aimed at simultaneously strengthening inclusive local economic development and municipal governance in Marsassoum. Its implementation rests on a meticulous application of the multi-actor principle of action in both cities.

    2nd prize: Rehabilitation of infrastructure and the strengthening of the economic activity of spirulina production between Zaragoza (Spain) and Ouonck (Senegal).

    The project is a virtuous example of co-development. This cooperation methodology involves migrants in order to foster integration in the community of residence and the sustainable development of their community of origin.

    3rd prize: Unesco Heritage for Sustainable Cities between Haskovo (Bulgaria) and Douala 1st (Cameroon)

    The project was able to advance sustainable development through a broad strategy that systematizes and adapts to the local context some of the most innovative methodologies developed internationally in the areas of preservation and enhancement of tangible and intangible heritage, participatory budgeting, support for cultural and creative industries, and sustainable smart city. 

    Special prize: EU-Ukraine partnerships

    The jury also decided to award a special prize to all Ukrainian and European local and regional administrations currently engaged in collaboration. The more than 700 pre-war European and Ukrainian local and regional government partnerships there are facts and have multiplied since its outbreak last February.

     

    Every year, the evaluation of PLATFORMAwards’ shortlisted projects is made by an international jury of European elected officials and city diplomacy professionals. This is the composition of the 2022 jury:

    • Mr. Fabrizio ROSSI, Secretary General of CEMR, president of the jury
    • Dr. Pierrette HERZBERGER-FOFANA, MEP, First Vice-Chair of the European Parliament’s Committee on Development (DEVE)
    • Mr. Emmanuel CARROZ, Deputy Mayor in charge of International Cooperation and Europe, City of Grenoble (France)
    • Ms. Pilar DIAZ ROMERO, Mayor of Esplugues de Llobregat and Deputy to the Presidency, responsible for international relations, Diputació de Barcelona (Spain)
    • Ms. Gertrude Nadia Sèna DOSSA, Mayor of the 2nd district of Porto Novo (Benin), United Cities and Local Governments Africa
    • Dr. Lorenzo KIHLGREN GRANDI, Director, City Diplomacy Lab at Columbia Global Centers | Paris
    • Mr. Alessandro DA ROLD, Director General, EU40 (Network of Young European Parliamentarians)
    2022 PLATFORMAwars winners and jury members

    For more information about the prize and how to apply for future editions, visit the dedicated website.

  • Shaping the future of Italian cities’ international action

    Shaping the future of Italian cities’ international action

    Since its dawn following World War II, city diplomacy has featured Italian municipalities among its main drivers of expansion and innovation. Twinning agreements, the municipal peace movement, the partnership approach to international cooperation, and, more recently, solidarity related to the pandemic crisis and the war in Ukraine have seen Italian cities as prominent advocates.

    A such international commitment of Italian cities rests on two particularities. First, its convincingly participatory approach stems from the involvement of a broad spectrum of local actors. Second, the international outlook is manifested by a considerable amount of small and medium-sized centers. These dynamics are all the more remarkable considering the overall absence of a national strategy to coordinate and support city diplomacy, in contrast to countries such as France and, most recently, the United States.

    For some time, however, a determination to give further impetus to Italian city diplomacy seems to be emerging in various national instances.
    To discuss this, a wide-ranging panel discussion took place at the 39th assembly of the National Association of Italian Municipalities (ANCI) on November 22 in Bergamo, Italy, featuring the participation of City Diplomacy Lab’s director Lorenzo Kihlgren Grandi. Strong determination was expressed by the various mayors, including host Giorgio Gori and Parma’s Michele Guerra, to support the spread of city diplomacy as a pillar of municipal action, enabling more and more small and medium-sized Italian municipalities to benefit from it.

    The appeal received the enthusiastic support of ANCI itself, the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation, and the City Diplomacy Lab, which announced their determination to support such nationwide uptake of the practice through capacity-building activities. The three institutions aim at reporting the first outcomes of such an agenda at the 2023 edition of the Italian municipalities’ annual assembly.

  • Scaling up diasporas’ unique contribution to decentralized cooperation

    Scaling up diasporas’ unique contribution to decentralized cooperation

    Diasporas are increasingly proving their empowering role in decentralized cooperation, i.e., development partnerships implemented by cities and local governments.

    With their knowledge of their territory of origin and ability to mediate between two cultures, diasporas’ contribution to designing and implementing such projects is unparalleled.

    So how can this practice be strengthened and spread to the height of its potential contribution to international cooperation?

    This question prompted City Diplomacy Lab, AIMF, and the Municipality of Tunis to organize this workshop on November 17 at Tunis City Hall. The keystone time of the day will be a dialogue between local elected officials and experts from cities in the Maghreb with European colleagues of Maghrebi origin.

  • Matching proximity and diplomacy at the Smart City Expo World Congress

    Matching proximity and diplomacy at the Smart City Expo World Congress

    The City Diplomacy Lab joins forces with ETI Chair – IAE Paris Sorbonne Business School and C40 Cities to support the global spread of local, participatory solutions to urban societies’ primary challenges.

    Join us at the Smart City Expo World Congress in Barcelona for two not-to-be-missed events:

    Happy Urban Proximities

    🗓 November 15 at 11:30 a.m.

    📌 Expo Area | Green Agora

    Proximities are at the heart of our quality of life and are critical to transition our lifestyles and our urban and territorial models to achieve SDGs targets.

    Together with supporting cities, academia, institutions, NGOs, and thought leaders, ETI Chair has created a Global Proximities Observatory to accelerate the impact of proximities-centric models at the neighborhood, village, municipality, region, or country scale.

    Speakers:

    • Prof. Carlos Moreno, Scientific Director, ETI Chair
    • Dr. Lorenzo Kihlgren Grandi, Director, City Diplomacy Lab
    • Ms. Hélène Chartier, Director of Urban Planning and Design, C40
    • Ms. Catherine Gall, Executive Director, ETI Chair

    Driving Climate Empowerment Leveraging Proximities and City Diplomacy

    🗓 November 15 at 3:00 p.m.

    📌 Level 1 | Zone CC1 — 1.1

    Join this expert workshop with the lead researchers of ETI Chair at IAE Paris Sorbonne Business School, City Diplomacy Lab at Columbia Global Centers | Paris, and C40 Cities Network to learn how cities and citizens are acting against climate and societal challenges thanks to the 15mn urban model and city diplomacy.

    Key takeaways for participants: peer-to-peer learning, research findings, best practices, actionable resources, and tools to drive positive impact.

    Speakers:

    • Prof. Carlos Moreno, Scientific Director, ETI Chair
    • Dr. Lorenzo Kihlgren Grandi, Director, City Diplomacy Lab
    • Ms. Hélène Chartier, Director of Urban Planning and Design, C40
    • Ms. Catherine Gall, Executive Director, ETI Chair
  • Bringing environmental city diplomacy to COP27

    Bringing environmental city diplomacy to COP27

    In consideration of their extensive efforts to deploy their unique tools to combat the causes and respond to the consequences of climate change, cities have emerged as indispensable actors in climate action worldwide.

    Unsurprisingly, this is as much due to cities’ ability to foster participatory responses to local impacts of local change as it is to their international coordination in modeling and disseminating the approaches that have proven most effective.

    To explore such action, give it new impetus, and scale it up through a multi-actor approach, the City Diplomacy Lab, in partnership with the International Association of Francophone Mayors (AIMF), ACE Observatory, and Columbia University’s Climate School, is co-organizing three hybrid events at the upcoming 2022 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP27) in Sharm el-Sheikh.

    Climate empowerment and city diplomacy. Exploring the potential of a thriving alliance

    In partnership with AIMF – International Association of Francophone Mayors

    📍Multilevel Action Pavilion, Blue Zone

    🗓 Tuesday, November 8 at noon, Egypt Standard Time (UTC+2)

    As the impact of climate change turns out to be increasingly dramatic, the need to motivate, coordinate and strengthen the action of various actors is still essentially an unrealized goal.

    However, a specific article in the Paris Agreement (Article 12) is dedicated to this imperative, known as Action for Climate Empowerment (ACE).

    Although the implementation of this article is often partial at the national level, the climate action of a growing number of cities around the world aligns with these principles.

    Indeed, municipalities are using their very nature as the political institution closest to citizens to carry out such work capable of creating coherence in climate action while strengthening and reinforcing operational collaboration between citizens, climate activists, and the city’s economic, social and cultural actors. The result is a city in which the fight against climate change becomes an engine of cohesion, well-being, social justice, and shared innovation for the benefit of the entire urban community.

    What is emerging is a methodology that is easily replicable and adaptable to specific contexts. As a matter of fact, city diplomacy is increasingly spreading such an approach to cities of all sizes, geographic coordinates, and socioeconomic conditions.

    The International Association of Francophone Mayors (AIMF) and the City Diplomacy Lab at Columbia Global Centers | Paris are hosting a panel discussion at COP27’s Multilevel Action Pavilion to discuss the scope of this approach in cities using it and its present and future impact on the global fight against climate change.

    Panelists:

    • Ms. Souad Abderrahim, Mayor of Tunis
    • Ms. Fatimetou Abdel Malick, President of the Regional Council of Nouakchott
    • Dr. Michèle Rubirola, Deputy Mayor of Marseille
    • Mr. Dan Lert, Deputy Mayor of Paris
    • Dr. Isatis M. Cintrón, Co-director, Research, ACE Observatory
    • Dr. Lorenzo Kihlgren Grandi, Director, City Diplomacy Lab, Columbia Global Centers | Paris

    Passcode: 397610

     

    Cities and universities. An alliance for sustainable development

    In partnership with AIMF – International Association of Francophone Mayors

    📍Francophonie Pavilion, Blue Zone

    🗓 Tuesday, November 8 at 3 p.m., Egypt Standard Time (UTC+2)

    As the global climate crisis deepens, cities and universities demonstrate unprecedented engagement.
    First, by their dual nature as the political institution closest to citizens and the primary provider of public services, cities are committed to addressing change through the imperatives of sustainability, participation, and equality. The same principles are guiding the actions of a growing number of universities, which are also eager to contribute in terms of research and training on both the characteristics of climate change and the best tools for governing and countering it.

    This convergence of intentions favors a growing synergy between the two actors. With the participation of prominent representatives from municipalities and universities, this roundtable, organized by the International Association of Francophone Mayors (AIMF) and the City Diplomacy Lab at Columbia Global Centers | Paris, aims to explore the nature and the local and global impact, present and future, of their collaboration. The event will take place in French.

    Panelists:

    • Ms. Souad Abderrahim, Mayor of Tunis
    • Dr. Michèle Rubirola, Vice Mayor of Marseille
    • Prof. Slim Khalbous, Rector, Agence Universitaire de la Francophonie
    • Prof. Etotépé A. Sogbohossou, Dean, Environment Department, Senghor University, Alexandria
    • Prof. Patricia Crifo, Director, Economics for Smart Cities and Climate Policy Master’s Degree, École Polytechnique, Paris
    • Ms. Mélody Braun, Senior Staff Associate, International Research Institute for Climate and Society (IRI), Columbia University’s Climate School
    • Dr. Lorenzo Kihlgren Grandi, Director, City Diplomacy Lab, Columbia Global Centers | Paris
     

    ACE City Champions: an equitable and participatory path towards sustainable cities

    In partnership with the ACE Observatory and Columbia University’s Climate School

    📍SDG Pavilion, Blue Zone

    🗓 Tuesday, November 15 at 6:30 p.m., Egypt Standard Time (UTC+2)

    The need for urban sustainability transformation underpins many of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and is mentioned in the Paris Agreement as crucial to fostering country-driven capacity building.

    City governments, through their civic mandates and long-term planning perspectives, are critical institutions to address climate impacts, decarbonize buildings, infrastructure, and mobility, ensure food security, transition to renewable energy, and build more resilient and sustainable communities. Cities are both an input to the problem and the key to a solution.

    Action for Climate Empowerment (Art 12 of the Paris Agreement) calls on national and subnational governments to build a comprehensive strategy, including strong climate governance, participatory processes engaging civil society, and capacity building is key to an economic transition that addresses the climate crisis while reducing poverty and inequality and maintaining citizens’ trust at the same time.

    This event, organized by the ACE Observatory, Columbia University’s Climate School, and City Diplomacy Lab, will feature locally-led examples of inclusive climate governance and capacity building by mayors, networks, and non-party stakeholders. It will also launch and present how the ACE City Champions Initiative can help strengthen the institutional capacity to capitalize on the coordination through those ACE efforts.

    Panelists:

    • Ms. Anne Hidalgo, Mayor of Paris (TBC)
    • Mr. Yunus Arikan, Director of Global Advocacy, ICLEI
    • Ms. Mélody Braun, Senior Staff Associate, International Research Institute for Climate and Society (IRI), Columbia University’s Climate School
    • Dr. Isatis M. Cintrón, Co-director, Research, ACE Observatory
    • Mr. Grégoire Merrheim, Officer, International Relations Department, City of Paris

    Registration coming soon