IIED at London Climate Action Week 2020
IIED and partners participated in London Climate Action Week, a three-day digital event from 1-3 July, 2020.

London Climate Action Week 2020 took place online (Image: London Climate Action Week)
For the second year in a row, IIED participated in London Climate Action Week (LCAW), a series of events to discuss climate leadership and how to scale up solutions to the climate emergency. This year’s discussions looked at how to focus climate policy to build back better after the COVID-19 pandemic.
LCAW featured more than 50 meetings over the three days, ranging across topics including 'Green investment for economic recovery', 'Politics of collaboration and competition', and 'Solutions: adaptation and resilience'.
IIED director Andrew Norton moderated a discussion panel on 3 July, which featured a host of experts, including COP26 President-designate Alok Sharma, who said that the world does "not have the luxury of time" to take urgent action to address the climate crisis.
Watch a video recording of the complete event below, including the question-and-answer session with webinar participants, and on IIED's YouTube channel.
Prior to the event, he recorded a video talking about the importance of London Climate Action Week and highlighted the opportunity to apply some of the lessons from the coronavirus pandemic to climate action. Watch the video below, and see videos by other participants, at London Climate Action Week’s YouTube channel.
On 2 July, the focus was on how social movements and grassroots organisations are responding to the COVID-19 pandemic, and what we can learn from their work with vulnerable and marginalised groups who are disproportionately impacted.
Watch a video recording of the complete event below, including the question-and-answer session with webinar participants, and on IIED's YouTube channel.
These are the events to which IIED and partners contributed:
Inequality in the face of COVID-19: how grassroots communities are taking action
Online event
Date: Thursday, 2 July 2020
Time: 11am-12pm BST (GMT +1)
Partner organisations: International Centre for Climate Change and Development (ICCCAD), Global Resilience Partnership (GRP)
Speakers: Saleemul Huq, ICCCAD (chair); Sheela Patel, Society for the Promotion of Area Resource Centres (SPARC) India; Martha Chen, Harvard Kennedy School and Women in Informal Employment: Globalizing and Organizing (WIEGO)
This online event brought together speakers from social movements and networks working with indigenous people, people living in informal settlements and women working in the informal economy to reflect on the response of their communities to COVID-19.
The event examined inequalities in impacts and coping strategies and mechanisms to address inequality and manage future risks and shocks. Questions included: How do we make room for innovation, how do we become more accepting of risk and increased experimentation? And what we can learn that will help us tackle the climate crisis?
Related reading: New narratives for a 'new normal' | ‘Building back better’ means ‘building back fairer’ after COVID-19 | Transitioning to a better global ‘new normal’ | Community-led COVID-19 response: the work of the Philippines Homeless People’s Federation
Resilience in light of COVID-19: climate action on the road to COP26
Online event
Date: Friday, 3 July 2020
Time: 10am-12pm BST (GMT +1)
Partner organisations: E3G, Global Commission on Adaptation, Global Resilience Partnership (GRP), International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC)
Opening remarks: Jagan Chapagain, Secretary General, International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC)
Keynote addresses: Alok Sharma, president-designate for COP26, and Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, UK; Jeanne d’Arc Mujawamariya, Minister of Environment, Rwanda
This event featured two panel discussions with experts from across policy, grassroots, business, and research. IIED director Andrew Norton moderated the second panel.
This event served a framing event for resilience at LCAW. It articulated the importance of resilience across agendas and showcased leading perspectives on resilience, emphasising the need for ambitious public policy commitments on climate adaptation and resilience in the near term, and exploring what action can be taken in the run-up to COP26 with a view to setting up action over the course of this decade.
Related reading: Business with purpose in the era of COVID-19 | Resilient food systems and COVID-19: lessons for a Just Transition
Information about all the events at LCAW 2020 can be found on the LCAW website.