Where to find IIED and partners at COP27: event listing

Conference

IIED researchers and partners led and presented at events throughout COP27. Our key focus areas were debt relief for climate and nature, locally led adaptation and finance, more ambitious carbon reduction targets, and supporting negotiators from the LDCs.

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Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, and online
Collection
UN climate change conference (COP27)
A series of pages related to IIED's activities at the 2022 UNFCCC climate change summit in Sharm el-Sheikh
Last updated 18 November 2022
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COP27 takes place in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt in November 2022 

IIED researchers and partners led and presented at events throughout the 27th Conference of the Parties (COP27) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

Our events called for more ambitious targets and actions to reduce carbon emissions, addressing debt relief for climate and nature, championed locally led adaptation to deliver a climate-resilient world, and the need for climate finance to reach those that need it the most. We also supported negotiators from the least developed countries.

During COP27 IIED and partners prioritised the calls for more ambitious targets and actions to reduce carbon emissions, the need for more climate finance to reach Indigenous People and Local Communities to tackle climate change, and for the international community to do more to address developing country debt, nature and climate – tackling these together for a sustainable future.

To see the events involving IIED and partners in week one and two, click on the following links:

Many of IIED’s events at COP27 were held at the Resilience Hub, where we co-led the ‘Finance and investment’ theme.

Week 1

Sunday 6 November

Delivering climate resilience through social protection

Pavilion event

Time: 4-6pm
Venue: India pavilion
Hosted by: Ministry of Rural Development, government of India
Partners: IIED, Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) India and UNDP

Related reading: Social protection to enhance climate resilience: what works where? | How women leaders are getting better social protection for the vulnerable


Monday 7 November

High Level Dialogue. Debt swaps for climate and nature: the time is now

Pavilion event

Venue: Resilience Hub

Hosted by: IIED

Speakers: including Seychelles President Wavel Ramkalawan; The Gambia Vice-President Badara Joof; Belize Minister of Finance Christopher Coye; Maldives Minister of Environment, Climate Change and Technology H.E. Aminath Shauna.

This event was targeted at debtor and creditor governments, private investors interested supporting climate and nature outcomes, international institutions engaged on debt, climate and nature and civil society working with local communities seeking investment in climate resilience, mitigation and natural resource management.  

The session facilitated a dialogue between debtor governments and creditors to reach political commitments for more large scale, programmatic debt swaps for climate and nature.

Related reading: After the Paris Agreement, the debt deluge: why lending for climate drives debt distress


Tuesday 8 November

Better cities: a radical agenda for a transformative urban future

Pavilion event

Hosted by: IIED

This session set out a vision for urban transformation to build just and inclusive cities. Through an engagement with domain experts embedded in varied contexts, participants explored four key action areas:

  1. Embracing disruptive resilience
  2. Connecting urban climate justice with social justice and decarbonisation
  3. Promoting housing justice while advancing climate justice, and
  4. Supporting migration in the context of the climate emergency.

Related reading: Building better cities: responding to the twin challenge of inequality and climate change


What does effective loss and damage finance look like from a resilience perspective? 

Pavilion event

Hosted by: Loss and Damage Youth Coalition
Partners: IIED, World Resources Institute (WRI) and InsuResilience 

This session complemented and did not duplicate the discussions in the negotiations but aimed to consider a set of issues around how to meet loss and damage needs through effective investment – what does this look like?

The event also provided space for discussions on loss and damage and the spectrum of policies and approaches to address them as well as advocated for greater financial support for addressing loss and damage in vulnerable developing countries.

Related reading: Financing loss and damage: four key challenges


Enhanced Direct Access to climate finance: devolving decisions, devolving power

Pavilion event

Hosted by: IIED
Partners: Environmental Investment Fund of Namibia (EIF), Adaptation Fund, Rwanda Green Fund, Micronesia Conservation Trust, Green Climate Fund

This event brought together entities that have managed the Enhanced Direct Access (EDA) approach, and entities that are still in the process, promoting a peer-to-peer learning process to share lessons, opportunities and difficulties of the EDA approach. EDA is a vital modality for locally led adaptation, prioritising local agency in funding allocations.


Sparking change: film and science together for desirable urban futures

Film screening

Venue: Action Hub 
Hosted by: United Nations University (UNU-EHS) as part of Transformative Urban Coalition

We all desire, want and need a better urban future for all. This can only be reached by working together: from artists and youth to scientists, policymakers, private sector and communities. This session showcases the huge power of narratives developed by artists, based on local demands and rooted in science to inspire and trigger urgent climate action.

In this screening, Oscar winner producer Dirk Wilutzky presented a short film from a series to inspire deep transformation towards bolder climate action in cities. The movies were created as part of the Transformative Urban Coalition’s project of UNU-EHS, WRI, IIED and IDOS under the International Climate Initiative. The film presents an interview with global thought leader Christiana Figueres, sharing an overview of the global challenges facing society today, the available solutions, and what concrete actions individuals can take.

Related reading: Transformative Urban Coalitions


Loss and Damage Forum: connecting local to global

Venue: LLA Pavilion
Speakers: Saleemul Huq, ICCCAD

This session marked the launch of Loss and Damage Forum, a collaborative platform and virtual workspace where resources and tools are shared among a group of practitioners, researchers and decision makers across the world, with a prime focus of connecting local to global, to support and address climate change-induced loss and damage. It included stories from transboundary Sundarbans, Africa and the Pacific/Small Islands.


Wednesday 9 November

Closing the gap: partnerships between households, grassroots organisations, intermediaries and providers of finance

Pavilion event

Hosted by: IIED
Partners: WRI and InsuResilience

This dynamic session started off by hearing from representatives from a range of groups including grassroots organisations, intermediaries and providers of finance experience so far with receiving or providing climate finance. This flowed into small breakout discussions with representatives from the various links in the finance chain where tough questions will be discussed.

Related reading: Scaling up support for locally led adaptation


But what does that have to do with me? The role of coalitions to foster long-term climate action in cities

Hub event

Hosted by: Transformative Urban Coalition
Speakers: Including Aditya Bahadur, IIED

How to better raise awareness to multiple urban realities and how to translate them into compelling narratives to enable urban climate action? This is very much needed as one of the biggest obstacles to ambitious urban climate action is that it seems to be a distant threat and that there are supposedly bigger and more urgent problems to solve in cities. That is particularly true for the most vulnerable groups of society whose critical knowledge and capacity gaps often hinder them from making their voices heard in co-developing more just and livable futures for all.

This session contributed to closing these crucial gaps by showcasing an approach to collect climate change perceptions from urban communities, with a focus on most vulnerable dwellers; process this data; and translate it into capacitation strategies and training material.

Related reading: How can local urban priorities connect with responses at global level to the climate crisis?


Transformative Urban Coalition photo exhibition

The Transformative Urban Coalitions photo exhibition launched at the opening of the Capacity building hub, featuring images submitted of people's perceptions of a desirable and sustainable city. The project facilitates the establishment of transformative urban coalitions in five Latin American cities to develop new strategies for addressing local challenges in urban development and inequality, while at the same time reducing carbon emissions.

Related reading: New coalition to transform cities – and lives


Locally led adaptation in the Green Climate Fund

Pavilion event

Hosted by: Namibia Nature Foundation, Germanwatch, Environmental Investment Fund of Namibia, Ministry of Environment, Forestry and Tourism of Namibia, Triple Capital
Speakers: Clare Shakya, IIED

African countries are among the most vulnerable to climate change impacts, with the estimated costs of adaptation based on countries’ Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) up to US$280 billion per year. Current climate finance flows for adaptation are in the region of $46 billion per year. Although adaptation finance is increasing, it is well below what is needed to adapt to existing and future climate change impacts.

Furthermore, climate finance rarely reaches the local level, even though local communities disproportionately bear the impacts of climate change. The majority of climate finance flows towards large scale projects via international organisations or central governments, while less than 10% of global climate finance reaches the local level, according to an estimate by IIED. The principles for locally led adaptation, endorsed by more than 80 governments and organisations, offers guidance for moving towards an approach to financing adaptation that puts local communities in the driver’s seat to ensure an effective, impactful and sustainable response to climate change.

Climate funds are yet to integrate the principles of locally led adaptation into their programming approaches. A recent publication by Germanwatch uses the principles to assess how well the Green Climate Fund has done to date in supporting adaptation at the local level across its Africa portfolio.


Thursday 10 November

Operationalising finance for loss and damage: examples from Africa and the Caribbean

Side event

Venue: Memphis room

Hosted by: SEI

Partners: IIED, Overseas Development Institute (ODI), International Youth and Student Movement of the UN (ISMUN), Pan African Climate Justice Alliance (PAJCA), Stop Climate Chaos Scotland

This event charted pathways forward for delivering financial support to victims of loss and damage. It discussed research findings on potential sources, modalities and structures for loss and damage finance, with insights on local needs and action from Africa and the Caribbean.

Related reading: Financing loss and damage: four key challenges | Harnessing Nationally Determined Contributions to tackle loss and damage in least developed countries


Converging top down and bottom-up pathways to achieve climate resilience

Pavilion event

Venue: India pavilion

Hosted by: National Institute of Disaster Management (NIDM) and government of Madhya Pradesh

This session illustrated innovative and scalable solutions that have been effective in building community level resilience from the perspective of policymakers at sub-national level and community level practitioners, covering top-down and bottom-up perspectives.

  • Top-down: share sub-national governments’ innovative policies and approaches to promote a whole of a government approach to achieve multi-sectoral coordination for climate action and direct capacity, knowledge/information, expertise to the local level
  • Bottom-up: present expert organisation and practitioners’ perspectives and best practices on how they have used local delivery channels, village institutions, women’s collectives to build bottom-up resilience.

Related reading: The power of ‘tech plus people’ in collective climate action


On transformative leadership for climate resilience

Pavilion event

Venue: Resilience Frontiers Pavilion

Hosted by: Climate-KIC and IIED

Climate-KIC and IIED are moving forward with implementing the EU Climate Adaptation mission. This includes supporting the transformative leadership capabilities of current and future leaders at regional and local levels. Our aim is to go beyond traditional climate adaptation training programmes and develop a more holistic approach to support personal transformation of leaders.

The focus is on working with young, elected leaders; young leaders of government executives; and youth leaders of community organisations. The aim is to take this beyond Europe and integrate it with programmes such as the LDC Initiative for Effective Adaptation and Resilience (LIFE-AR) programme.


Friday 11 November

How accountability enables locally led adaptation: driving the quality of climate finance 

Pavilion event

Time: 10.30am-12pm
Venue: Resilience Hub
Hosted by: IIED
Partners: WRI and CCRI

Scaling up adaptation finance to the local level will require transformational shifts in terms of the platforms used, reforms to finance architecture and sources of finance. Enhancing feedback on what is working and what is not will ensure these transformations can happen faster and more effectively. This will support the finance recipients and the women and men impacted by projects to shape developmental outcomes.

This session brings together stakeholders involved in climate finance to explore novel approaches to accountability. It will provide an opportunity for finance providers and intermediaries to work towards more inclusive and transparent finance provision and promote locally led adaptation.

Related reading: Good climate finance guide for investing in locally led adaptation | Locally led adaptation principles | Good climate finance guide: lessons for strengthening devolved climate finance | 360 degree methodology backgrounder


Money where it matters: driving climate finance to achieve human and environmental rights

Official side event

Time: 3-4.30pm
Venue: Khufu room
Hosted by: Fairtrade Labelling Organizations International, Agricord, The National Farmers Union (NFU)
Partners: Forest Farm Facility

Food systems are increasingly called upon to enforce human and environmental rights. But what does this mean for farmers’ livelihoods? Accessing funding and innovative financial instruments for adaptation and mitigation are necessary to rapidly scale up food system transformation among small farmers.

Related reading: Local climate resilience finance: how can mirage become reality?


Saturday 12 November

Understanding urban risk

Pavilion event

Venue: IDFC pavilion
Hosted by: Adaptation Research Alliance and IIED

Efforts aimed at enhancing resilience in cities are predicated on accurately understanding and communicating the nature of climate risk, however urban areas pose peculiar challenges for these processes.

In this session, the Adaptation Research Alliance employed a highly interactive format to explore a subset of these proven models understanding urban risk from across the global South.

Related reading: Disruptive resilience: an agenda for the new normal in cities of the global South


Open Space Learning Day: Sustainable Cities – Transformative Urban Coalitions

Hub event

Venue: Capacity-building Hub 
Hosted by: UNU-EHS and IIED


Enhancing biodiversity conservation and sustainable agriculture for climate change adaptation in China

Pavilion event

Venue: China Pavilion
Hosted by: Farmers’ Seed Network of China, United Nations Environment Programme-International Ecosystem Management Partnership (UNEP-IEMP), C Team and Foundation for Rural Development

This event featured research institute, social organisation and enterprise participants and illustrated good practices and potential mechanisms to promote smallholder communities and their collaboration and linkages with scientists and other stakeholders for co-innovation; in the field of biodiversity conservation and sustainable agriculture as strategies and nature-based solutions for climate change adaptation.  

Related reading: Community-based network: How organising farmers can channel finance for nature and climate to locally-led EbA


Locally led adaptation: creating a step-change in climate finance and resilience building

Ministerial event

Venue: UK Pavilion
Hosted by: IIED, WRI
Partners: Endorsers of the principles for locally led adaptation

More than 80 organisations have endorsed the eight principles for locally led adaptation (LLA) as of September 2022 and more countries and non-state institutions signed on ahead of COP27; the task is now to translate these principles into tangible action and scaling up support for LLA across levels of governance.

This session spotlighted new endorsements of the eight principles from governments, funders, as well as grassroots civil society organisations. Participants heard about new commitments and ongoing initiatives around the globe, to create a step-change in climate finance and policy to support LLA.  The event closed with renewing commitments and indicate a forward trajectory to advance the global movement for LLA.

Related reading: Locally led adaptation principles


Putting good quality adaptation finance in the spotlight at COP27

Ministerial event

Venue: Resilience Hub
Hosted by: Champions Group on Adaptation Finance
Partners: IIED, E3G

This event and reception brought together ministers and senior representatives from climate-vulnerable countries and members of the Champions Group on Adaptation Finance in dialogue on what good quality adaptation finance looks like in practice and how these countries are supporting this and driving stronger political ambition and action on adaptation finance for COP27 and beyond. 

Related reading: Videos from participating countries marking one year of the champions group


Locally led adaptation reception

Celebration and reception

Venue: Resilience Hub
Hosted by: IIED, WRI
Partners: Endorsers of the principles for locally led adaptation

More than 80 organisations have endorsed the eight principles for locally led adaptation (LLA) as of September 2022 and more countries and non-state institutions signed on ahead of COP; the task is now to translate these principles into tangible action and scaling up support for LLA across levels of governance.

This session spotlighted new endorsements of the eight principles from governments, funders, as well as grassroots civil society organisations. Those present heard about new commitments and ongoing initiatives around the globe, to create a step-change in climate finance and policy to support LLA.  The event closed with renewing commitments and indicating a forward trajectory to advance the global movement for LLA.

Related reading: Locally led adaptation principles


Week 2

Tuesday 15 November

Climate and Development Forward Plan: towards transformational change

Side event

Venue: Rwanda Pavilion
Hosted by: Rwanda and UK governments

This High-Level event brought together ministers and senior representatives to discuss a forward plan on the climate and development actions called for at the second Climate and Development Ministerial (at the sidelines of UNGA77). This concluded that a series of transformational shifts are needed to meet climate and development challenges now compounded by multiple global crises.

The independent group of climate experts who supported the ministerial workshops have drafted a forward plan to deliver on the transformational shifts on climate and development resourcing called for - reforming the global financial architecture, towards platform-based financing, and on the scale and composition of finance.

This event discussed this proposed forward plan with invited Ministers from Rwanda, the United Kingdom, Egypt, Senegal, the UAE, Barbados, and Germany. They will offer their reflections, including what roles they can take in delivering on the forward plan.

Related reading: Climate and Development Ministerial Forward Plan: transforming climate and development delivery (PDF)


Capacities for building climate resilience: insights and learning from three global initiatives

Venue: Capacity-building Hub
Hosted by: Adaptation Research Alliance (with IIED), UN Environment Programme, UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, UN Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia

Related reading: Good practices for adaptation action research (PDF)


Stories of climate mobility: understanding the impacts, informing effective response

Pavilion event

Venue: Climate Mobility Pavilion
Hosted by: government of Germany and the Bosch Foundation
Partners: Environment Department in the government of Madhya Pradesh, Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change in India, IIED and Climate, Migration, and Displacement Platform

Related reading: Climate change, migration and vulnerability to trafficking | Social protection and informal job market reform for tackling climate migration nexus | A helpline that is a lifeline for migrants

Tuesday 15 November

Climate and Development Forward Plan: towards transformational change

Side event

Venue: Rwanda Pavilion
Hosted by: Rwanda and UK governments

This High-Level event brought together ministers and senior representatives to discuss a forward plan on the climate and development actions called for at the second Climate and Development Ministerial (at the sidelines of UNGA77). This concluded that a series of transformational shifts are needed to meet climate and development challenges now compounded by multiple global crises.

The independent group of climate experts who supported the ministerial workshops have drafted a forward plan to deliver on the transformational shifts on climate and development resourcing called for - reforming the global financial architecture, towards platform-based financing, and on the scale and composition of finance.

This event discussed this proposed forward plan with invited Ministers from Rwanda, the United Kingdom, Egypt, Senegal, the UAE, Barbados, and Germany. They offered their reflections, including what roles they can take in delivering on the forward plan.

Related reading: Climate and Development Ministerial Forward Plan: transforming climate and development delivery (PDF)


Capacities for building climate resilience: insights and learning from three global initiatives

Venue: Capacity-building Hub
Hosted by: Adaptation Research Alliance (with IIED), UN Environment Programme, UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, UN Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia

Related reading: Good practices for adaptation action research (PDF)


Stories of climate mobility: understanding the impacts, informing effective response

Pavilion event

Venue: Climate Mobility Pavilion
Hosted by: government of Germany and the Bosch Foundation
Partners: Environment Department in the government of Madhya Pradesh, Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change in India, IIED and Climate, Migration, and Displacement Platform

Related reading: Climate change, migration and vulnerability to trafficking | Social protection and informal job market reform for tackling climate migration nexus | A helpline that is a lifeline for migrants

Wednesday 16 November

Putting nature at the heart of the principles for locally led adaptation: a celebration of endorsers

Pavilion event

Venue: LLA Pavilion
Hosted by: IIED, Fauna and Flora International (FFI), BirdLife International

This event brought together representatives from Indigenous Peoples and local communities, government, funds and non-government organisations to celebrate new and existing endorsers of the principles for locally led adaptation and highlight their efforts to implement locally led action in nature and conservation initiatives aligned to their commitment to these principles.

The event also highlighted the close connection between climate change and nature and emphasise the importance of solutions that work together to solve both crises through local level action.

Related reading: Only a fraction of international climate adaptation finance for least developed countries found to also support nature


Blending people’s participation and nature-based approaches for enhancing community resilience

Pavilion event

Venue: LLA Hub 
Hosted by: ICCCAD with Center for Natural Resources Studies (CNRS)  
 
Community and ecosystem resilience happens where there is mix of locally led adaptation actions as well as nature-based approaches. This panel discussion led by ICCCAD, CNRS and CCJB, with support from CJRF, explored how local communities’ participation is crucial to implement nature-based solutions and strengthen socio-ecological resilience in the climate-disaster prone areas of Bangladesh.


Thursday 17 November

Amplifying voices from urban informal settlements: governance and finance models that advance climate justice and urban resilience

Pavilion event

Venue: Resilience Hub
Hosted by: Slum Dwellers International (SDI)
Partners: IIED, Green Africa Youth Organisation (GAYO), WRI, World Bank, Global Commission on Adaptation (GCA), Cities Alliance, Plan International

To realise a resilient, just future, effective climate interventions must include organised urban poor communities – particularly women and youth – as lead designers, planners, and implementers of climate solutions. Evidence shows that these communities have the skills, capacities and systems to drive and deliver locally led adaptation and channel climate finance directly to communities who need it most.

This session illustrated the power of urban poor communities to produce governance and finance models that advance climate justice from the ground up, highlighting the transformative power of these strategies.