ICLEI South Asia was part of the ‘Climate-resilient Urban Infrastructure: The G20 Adaptation Work Programme’, a side event organised by the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) at the COP24 in Katowice, Poland on the 11th of December, 2018.

Mr. Emani Kumar, Executive Director, ICLEI South Asia talked about the role of local governments in the ‘Climate-resilient Urban Infrastructure – Contributions from Insurance, Science, Civil Society and Local Actors’ session. The goal of the session was to increase understanding of the participants on these instruments for financing climate-resilient urban infrastructure and the framework conditions for their application.

The G20 work on adaptation aims at sharing experiences from various countries and engaging in on-going cooperation to build resilience.

In order to ensure that resilience is considered in the prioritisation, planning, design, building and operation of future infrastructure, clear rules, enabling environments, and relevant capacities are needed. Public and private finance and expertise needs to be provided in a targeted manner. The G20 countries, in response to the urgent need for action and under the leadership of the Presidency of Argentina, have placed this item high on the agenda of the G20 Climate Sustainability Working Group (CSWG).

The event provided an opportunity to share experiences of G20 countries in resilience building with different countries.