ICSI to spotlight infrastructure, energy, and transport resilience at COP27

Posted on November 1, 2022 | ICSI |

ICSI is delighted to be hosting a number of events at COP27 in Sharm el-Sheikh, with a focus on Infrastructure, Energy, and Mobility. We are proud to be a co-lead on the Infrastructure, Energy, and Mobility theme at the COP Resilience Hub, where we have some exciting sessions lined up with speakers joining in-person and virtually from around the world. Additionally, we are excited to be hosting a Marrakech Partnership Implementation Lab which will explore how engineers can advance climate-resilient transport.

Below we have shared details of sessions that ICSI is hosting.

Addressing Innovation Barriers in Energy and Mobility Entrepreneurship: Innovative business models and initiatives to scale up markets

15 November 2022, 14.00-15.00 EET, Resilience Hub, Blue Zone

Hosted by: ICSI

Led by ICSI, this session will consider opportunities and barriers in business models, financing, technology, policy, and engaging legacy institutions such as public utilities which will play an important part in the future of net zero transportation. It will consider similarities and differences across markets, facilitating knowledge-sharing as one way to generate new ideas. This session asks: How can entrepreneurship be supported and encouraged in these spaces? Which entrepreneurial initiatives are leading the way?

Tackling cascading risks, losses, and damages in heavily interconnected systems

15 November 2022, 15.30-16.30 EET, Resilience Hub, Blue Zone

Hosted by: ICSI, Build Change

The transition towards resilient infrastructure systems requires critical assessment and management of the interdependencies that exist within and between technical, social, and environmental systems. This serves both as a means to prevent and mitigate future losses and damages – and other adverse cascading impacts – and to build resilience and adaptation for the long term. Led by ICSI and Build Change, this interactive session will facilitate a conversation on how the systemic nature and interconnectedness of risks can be addressed to build safer, more resilient infrastructure systems. Representatives from UNDRR, the European Commission Joint Research Centre, Build Change and the University of Oxford will participate.

Marrakech Partnership Implementation Lab: Engineering the vision for climate-resilient transport

16 November 2022, 10.30-12.00 EET, Action Zone, Blue Zone

Hosted by: ICSI

The focus of this event will be progress on and implementation of the resilience and adaptation breakthrough: ‘Transport infrastructure be resilient to climate hazards through the adoption of new technology, design, and materials.’

Led by the International Coalition for Sustainable Infrastructure (ICSI) and delivered with its partners, Resilience Rising, the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy (GCoM), and the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE), this session will bring together transport experts from the global engineering community, including from the private sector, professional associations, academia, and key transport industry bodies, alongside representatives from the policymaker and the investor communities. Participants will share current best practices and available solutions and discuss how to operationalise this resilience and adaptation breakthrough.

From Gray to Green: Integrating nature-based solutions in the infrastructure lifecycle

16 November 2022, 17.00-18.00 EET, Resilience Hub, Blue Zone

Hosted by: ICSI, Conservation International

Making a strong case for nature-based solutions (NbS) requires a consideration of their whole lifecycle, from concept planning to design and implementation, all the way through to operations and maintenance. Led by ICSI and Conservation International, this session will showcase real-world examples of planning, delivery, and management of NbS, with a focus on building the business case, implementing hybrid solutions, and their long-term operation and maintenance. The session addresses the integration of infrastructure and nature, exploring how to work with nature to build systemic resilience and identify nature-positive solutions for mitigation and adaptation. Speakers from Conservation International, WSP, UNEP, GGGI, and more will participate.

The following are sessions that ICSI is contributing to, as well as activities from across the Resilience Rising consortium:

COP27 Resilience Hub

Programming from 6 -18 November 2022, 9.00 – 19.00 EET, Resilience Hub, Blue Zone

Resilience Rising is proud to be a Managing Partner of the COP27 Resilience Hub, the main pavilion for climate resilience and adaptation at COP, and the official home of the Race to Resilience, the UN-backed campaign representing over 1,500 non-state actors taking action to build resilience to climate hazards for 4 billion people by 2030. The Resilience Hub aims to place locally-informed, equitable resilience solutions for people and nature at the heart of the COP process, motivated by the urgent need to increase the level of ambition and investment given to resilience – particularly for groups on the frontlines of the climate crisis. This year, more than 40 private and public sector organisations are working together to co-deliver key aspects of the Hub.

Check out the full programme and roster of speakers.

Robust and accelerated climate action in Non-State Actors: Race 2 Resilience

10 November 2022, 17:00-18:00 EET, Resilience Hub, Blue Zone

Hosted by: UN Climate Change High-Level Champions

Non-State actors (businesses, NGOs, investors, subnational administrations, and other actors) have a key role to play in building resilience to climate change and will become increasingly important as global efforts progress.

Commitments to resilience are not enough if they are not accompanied by solid and measurable results. There is much evidence of good-willed actions which have resulted in disappointing, or even counterproductive outcomes. Therefore, there is a need for better methodologies to understand the impact of resilience-building interventions and to generate learnings that can guide best practices across multiple actors and scales.

This workshop aims to discuss these matters, and introduce the approach proposed by the Race to Resilience campaign to advance in this direction. ICSI will contribute to this session as an official Partner Initiative of the Race to Resilience campaign.

From Risk to Resilience: The Path towards Achieving Disaster and Climate Resilient Infrastructure

11 November 2022, 09:00 – 10.00 EET, Resilience Hub, Blue Zone

Hosted by: The Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI)

The Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI) is convening a Technical Session on ‘Measuring Risk and Resilience of Global Infrastructure Systems’. During the Session, preliminary results of the Global Infrastructure Resilience Survey will be showcased. The outputs of the Survey will reveal what areas of institutional and human capacity are most important for the development of successful infrastructure and will create global geographic insights into where and how investments and upgrades in the enabling environment should take place. ICSI Executive Director Savina Carluccio will contribute to this session on the link between risk metrics and the development of resilience standards in infrastructure projects.

Launch of the Summary for Urban Policymakers of the IPCC’s AR6 Report

11 November 2022, 18.30 – 20.00 EET, Side Event Room 1 (Akhenaten), Area B, Blue Zone

Hosted by: IPCC, Resilience Rising, the Indian Institute for Human Settlements (IIHS), the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy (GCoM), Resilience First, the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action (BMWK), Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ).

Join us for the launch of the Summary for Urban Policymakers (SUP), a three-report compendium distilling the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) AR6 Assessment Reports in accessible and targeted summaries that can help inform action at the city scale. The SUP initiative has convened IPCC report authors acting in an independent capacity with local government officials and business leaders to build an understanding around the need to move swiftly to prioritize urgent transformation and radical collaboration.

This session will include the official release of the first three volumes of the SUP for the IPCC AR6 Cycle. Resilience Rising CEO Seth Schultz will speak alongside contributing IPCC authors, city leaders, and private sector actors.

Ports as a Gateway for Maritime Resilience: Launch of the Maritime Resilience Breakthroughs

11 November 2022, 18.00-19.00 EET, Oceans Pavillion, Blue Zone

Hosted by: Resilience Rising, UN Climate Change High-Level Champions, Arup, Lloyd’s Register Group and Lloyd’s Register Foundation.

This event will launch the Maritime Resilience Breakthoughs to mobilise coordinated action to enhance the resilience of ports so that people, communities, and supply chains remain connected, through targeted solutions for infrastructure, natural environment, and workforce focussed actions. Through Resilience Rising’s First Innovation Lab, Maritime Resilience Breakthroughs: Resilience4Ports, we aim to build a community of partners to evaluate, co-create and test solutions that can be scaled up.

Green Shipping Challenge – A Climate Smart, Equitable, and Resilient Maritime Sector: Turning Commitments into Action Globally

12 November 2022, 18.30-20.00 EET, Room 8 Thutmose, Blue Zone

Hosted by: USGC, US State Department

Resilience Rising CEO Seth Schultz will participate in a 30-minute panel moderated by Susan Ruffo, Senior Advisor for Ocean and Climate at the UN Foundation, on ports resilience along with port stakeholders, discussing the critical role of ports in supporting broader maritime resilience and decarbonization breakthroughs.

Building from the Summary for Urban Policymakers of the IPCC’s AR6 Report: From Science to Action

16 November 2022, 9.00 – 10.00 EET, LGMA Pavilion, Blue Zone

Hosted by: The Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy (GCoM), Resilience Rising, the Indian Institute for Human Settlements (IIHS), Resilience First, the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action (BMWK), Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ).

The Summary for Urban Policymakers (SUP) initiative has developed a companion series to the official IPCC reports, distilling the latest climate change science for the urban context.

Following the launch of the first three SUP reports (Volumes I-III), we will also be releasing a stand-alone Action Agenda which captures the key findings from the SUP volumes, but goes beyond the SUP Series and the foundational IPCC reports, to include inputs from city and business leaders gathered through a series of regional convenings. As distinct from the official SUP series, which is authored by the scientific community with input from practitioners, this Action Agenda is written from the perspective of city and business leaders and organizations that represent them. It is informed by and grounded in the knowledge derived from the findings of the SUP process and with the goal of establishing a long-term platform to co-create and scale urban solutions based in science.