From 2019 to 2021, ICLEi East Asia co-delivered a series of in-depth training to 4 selected cities/districts in China – namely Ningbo, Chengdu, Shanghai Changning, and Beijing – with UNDRR ONEA-GETI,  to strengthen their capacities on disaster risk reduction, as well as on designing and implementing urban resilience in the context of climate change.

Through the training, the participants were able to apply UNDRR’s Ten Essentials for Making Cities Resilient Scorecard and conduct preliminary assessments of the jurisdictions’ current status in disaster risk reduction and resilient development with the support of leading experts from multi-disciplinary backgrounds.

Relevant reports:

• Ningbo gears up to strengthen capacities for disaster risk reduction and resilient cities
• Chengdu accelerates resilience development to combat climate change
• Chinese cities exploring resilience approaches to navigate sustainable development

ICLEI is the local lead partner of the Building Efficiency Accelerator (BEA) in East Asia, taking responsibility to plan and execute the work plan, coordinating participating cities and stakeholders, and facilitating the engagement among business and local governments in the region.

Through the BEA, ICLEI has supported local governments in China and Mongolia to inquire about practical information for policy design and planning, to have access to international funding opportunities for project implementation and replication, and to strengthen the relationship with non-governmental stakeholders.

Find out more about the BEA

ICLEI connects like-minded cities to exchange experiences and lessons learned on the way towards the circular economy, advocates the necessity of closing-the-loop thinking, identifies cities’ circular good practices, shares the latest knowledge, and provides suggestions on mainstreaming the circular development in urban strategic planning and policies.

Launched in 2019, the Green Circular Cities Coalition （GCCC） presents a platform for cities, experts, businesses, and relevant stakeholders in East Asia and Europe, to help foster their mindset shift from the end-of-pipe treatment of waste toward closed-loop thinking. This mindset change can have a positive influence on local governments’ actions to achieve a zero-carbon society and the SDGs. Cities can further review, synergize and optimize existing policies and strategies via the lenses of circularity and life-cycle management.

The Green Circular Cities Coalition is managed by ICLEI East Asia, and currently has 6 members from China, Japan, and Finland.

Find out more about the Green Circular Cities Coalition 

The EcoMobility World Festival series by ICLEI shows that an ecomobile lifestyle can be promoted in cities around the world. The Festival transforms a neighborhood or a business district in a city into a carfree and ecomobile area for a month. Implementing the Festival demonstrates the possibilities of an innovative and forward-thinking urban mobility culture.

Previous festivals:

• 2013 – Suwon
• 2015 – Johannesburg
• 2017 – Kaohsiung

Find out more at Sustainable Mobility at ICLEI

The Resilience Cities Congress convened annually from 2010 to 2019 by ICLEI and the Federal City of Bonn, providing a global and open space for urban practitioners, policymakers, and researchers working in urban resilience and climate change adaptation. It built an active, informed, and committed community and played a key role in mainstreaming urban resilience in global agreements and processes.

During the 10 years of the Congress, thousands of experts from over 80 countries actively participated in and collaborated on hundreds of capacity-building sessions. Building on the experience and network established during the Congress, the newly launched Daring Cities provides a virtual, action-oriented forum to recognize and empower courageous urban leaders to disrupt business-as-usual and shift towards business-as-possible.

The report Resilient Cities, Thriving Cities: The Evolution of Urban Resilience provides an appraisal of the state of resilient cities from the last decade, as well as the actions of the main players in respective fields.

The Solutions Gateway is an online resource platform for local and regional governments where they will be able to find relevant Low Emissions Development (LED) Solutions for their cities. It contains sectoral and cross-sectoral packages of activities, structured along with local government responsibilities and spheres of influence, to support cities in the development of low-emission strategies, plans, and projects.

The Solutions Gateway contents are based on proven technologies and practices, distilled into Solutions and Solution Packages which are drafted and peer-reviewed by experts in the respective field. The platform was developed under the Urban-LEDS project, funded by the European Union, and jointly implemented by ICLEI and UN-Habitat.

Find out more at solutions-gateway.org