Flowing Together: Integrating Freshwater in NDCs and NAPs

In view of the upcoming revision of the NDCs, the session will focus on identifying persisting challenges, but also key entry points and opportunities for multi-level governance and for leveraging, mainstreaming and upscaling the urban water content into national climate planning and policies to support the implementation of local urban water resilience solutions.

This event will involve participants from across the water, biodiversity, climate, and sanitation communities, in a collaborative exercise, to take stock and provide feedback to the ongoing indicator development process for water-related targets. This will include a look at freshwater indicators for the two GGA targets where water is mentioned explicitly and also a focus on how water connects the other GGA and associated sustainability framework targets, including the Sustainable Development Goals, the Sedai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction and the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.

Improving and maintaining urban resilience can appear to be a complex and costly challenge for public authorities and utilities. For many city leaders, financing their city’s ability to adapt and transform to cope with the multitude of risks or to rebound after a major incident may seem out of reach, However, it can be done, even in the most difficult circumstances.

This opening panel will introduce the concept of systems approaches strengthening and its critical role in building resilience to water and climate-related challenges. It aims to establish a shared framework for understanding the complexities of water and climate resilience, focusing on breaking down barriers between sectors and stakeholders.