Schedule COP30

Official Inauguration of the Water for Climate Pavilion at COP30.

COP30 in Belém marks a historic first: a UN Climate Conference hosted in the Amazon, a region where climate impacts and solutions converge. In response to the Brazilian Presidency’s call for a global mutirão, a collective effort to accelerate climate action, the Neighbourhood of the Mutirão for Cities, Water and Infrastructure comes to life.

Cities are on the frontline of climate-driven water challenges: from floods and droughts to water quality and access. This session explores how Nature-Based Solutions (NBS) can address these issues while delivering broader benefits for biodiversity, public health, and community resilience. Drawing on real-world examples from Peru, Cape Town, Brazil, and California, the panel will highlight how cities and regions are translating global climate goals into local action. With a focus on delivery, innovation, and inclusive governance, the session offers practical insights into how NBS can move beyond single-issue interventions to support thriving, climate-resilient urban futures. Reflecting the strong theme of implementation in the COP. Opportunity to learn from international best practice on locally-led adaptation from early-warning to response.

The global climate crisis requires not only urgent reductions in greenhouse gas emissions but also effective measures to adapt to its unavoidable impacts. For too long, mitigation and adaptation have been pursued along parallel policy tracks—mitigation focusing on preventing future climate risks, and adaptation addressing present and emerging vulnerabilities. However, with escalating climate impacts and growing economic instability linked to climate shocks, it is increasingly clear that these approaches must be integrated to achieve coherence, efficiency, and resilience. Integrated approaches enable mutual reinforcement: strong mitigation efforts reduce the scale of future adaptation needs, while robust adaptation safeguards the success of mitigation investments by ensuring infrastructure, ecosystems, and communities remain resilient under changing conditions. The convergence of mitigation and adaptation is therefore central to delivering the Paris Agreement goals and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, especially across SDG 1 (End Poverty), SDG 6 (Water and Sanitation), SDG 7 (Affordable and Clean Energy), SDG 13 (Climate Action), and SDG 15 (Life on Land) and other interconnected goals. Innovation, finance, and policy coherence are key to advancing this agenda. Integrating both dimensions of climate action—through technologies, nature-based solutions, and inclusive governance—can maximize co-benefits, avoid trade-offs, and promote just transitions that leave no one behind.