IIED at London Climate Action Week, June/July 2021

Conference

IIED and partners participated in London Climate Action Week, a week-long series of digital events from 26 June to 4 July 2021. This page lists the key events.

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Collection
UN climate change conference (COP26)
A series of pages related to IIED's activities at the 2021 UNFCCC climate change summit in Glasgow
 London Climate Action Week 2021 logo

London Climate Action Week 2021 took place online (Image: London Climate Action Week)

London Climate Action Week is an annual event, founded in 2019, that brings together world-leading climate professionals and communities across London and beyond to find practical solutions to climate change.

There were more than 100 digital events throughout the week, falling under the categories of ‘Green, fair and resilient recovery’; ‘Road to COP26’; ‘Whole of society climate action’; and ‘Sustainable, net zero London’.

London Climate Action Week is an opportunity for IIED to bring forward the voices and amplify the climate actions of our partners on a global stage. Actors in the global South have a huge amount of experience on climate action, and it is crucial for us to learn from their work, so we can collectively make change happen.

In 2021, IIED and partners contributed at the following events:

Climate and development agenda stocktake workshop 

Online event
Date: Monday, 28 June 2021
Partner organisations: E3G, Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre (RCCC), World Resources Institute (WRI)

Three months have passed since the UK COP26 presidency hosted a virtual Climate and Development Ministerial to help unlock some of the critical issues blocking climate and development action. Wealthy and vulnerable countries came together to identify practical steps that countries can take, together with key multilateral organisations, to support the delivery of the Paris Agreement and Agenda 2030 for sustainable development in the world’s most climate vulnerable countries.

At the meeting, vulnerable countries stood out for proposing tangible solutions to priority issues, including building resilience to climate impacts; improving access to climate finance; increasing the quantity, quality and composition of finance; and getting to grips with debt sustainability. All countries at the ministerial committed to work together to drive real progress on the solutions, and time is of the essence – so what progress has been made so far?

This workshop was planned to feed into part two of the stocktake on Friday, 2 July and included a panel with ministers to identify concrete next steps to deliver this agenda through the rest of 2021.


Frontline funds: investing in grassroots-led responses to climate change

Online event
Date: Wednesday, 30 June 2021
Partner organisations: Huairou Commission, Slum Dwellers International, Climate Justice Resilience Fund and Global Resilience Partnership.

Speakers: Tracy Kajumba, IIED principal researcher; Edel Monteiro, programme lead for India Climate Collaborative (ICC).
Opening remarks: Andrew Norton, IIED director

This online event brought climate finance providers, foundations and multilateral organisations together with grassroots organisations and social movements to discuss the role of frontline funds as effective mechanisms to build resilience that is driven at the local level.

Drawing on lessons learned through grassroots action, the panel discussed how to increase financial streams that place resources in the hands of organised communities groups, empowering poor women and men to take short- and long-term measures to build resilience to multiple threats.

Related project: Frontline Funds Accelerator: catalysing climate investment to the grassroots


Natural solutions for people, climate and nature: co-beneficial approaches

Online event
Date: Wednesday, 30 June 2021
Partner organisations: Christian Aid, Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) and WWF-UK.

Speakers: professor Sir Bob Watson, former chair of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES); professor Nathalie Seddon, University of Oxford; Camila Zepeda Lizama, Mexican government; Simon Sharpe, UK government

This event explored solutions to the triple crisis of development, climate change and biodiversity loss that could have positive benefits for people, climate and nature.

The panel brought together experts working at this interface, and they shared their understanding of ways of garnering these co-benefits politically and in the real world.


The adaptation action and research sandbox: aligning two global processes

Online event
Date: Thursday, 1 July 2021
Partner organisations: Adaptation Research Alliance

Speakers: Aditya V. Bahadur (moderator), IIED principal researcher; Jesse DeMaria-Kinney, head of the ARA secretariat; Clare Shakya, IIED climate change director; IIED researcher Clara Gallagher.

The Adaptation Research Alliance (ARA) and the locally-led adaptation principles are gaining traction in the run up to this year's UN climate summit (COP26). These initiatives set out to strengthen adaptation action and research that puts the needs of the most vulnerable front and centre.

This innovative sandbox-style event featured two salient efforts and discussed opportunities to strengthen and enhance their impact. Adaptation practitioners, researchers, funders and policymakers took part in an interactive workshop discussion to explore the aims and objectives of the alliance and principles and what is needed to ensure that more individuals and organisations endorse and support these initiatives.

 
  • All the events at London Climate Action Week can be found on the LCAW website.