These two agendas are key outcomes of the Innovate4Cities Conference 2021 co-hosted by GCoM and UN Habitat, co-sponsored by the IPCC, with ICLEI as one of the core partners, a virtual global and regional event that brought together 7000 participants from diverse science and innovation, policy and practice communities, united by a common objective: enabling cities to take accelerated and more ambitious climate action. This was the second gathering of these key stakeholders, first hosted by the City of Edmonton in March 2018, with the next conference slated for 2023.
Innovate4Cities, GCoM’s city-focused research and innovation initiative, was a key outcome of the 2018 Edmonton Cities and Climate Change Science Conference, building on the resulting Global Research and Action Agenda (GRAA) on Cities and Climate Change Science.
The Findings from Innovate4Cities 2021 Conference, jointly organized by GCoM and UN-Habitat and co-sponsored by the IPCC with ICLEI as one of the key contributing partners resulted in an Update to the Global Research and Action Agenda (Updated GRAA) that once again details the research, policy, and public discussions, recommendations and research gaps as the global research and action agenda for cities and climate change science – drawing on hundreds of presentations and discussions at the global event – under key topical and cross cutting themes (figure 1).
Figure 1: Themes from the Findings from Innovate4Cities 2021 and Update to the Global Research and Action Agenda (GRAA), 20221: Cross cutting themes (inner ring), Topical Research Areas (middle ring) and Delivery Approaches (outer ring).
In addition, GCoM’s City Research and Innovation Agenda 2022 (CRIA) prioritises the resulting recommendations for a city practice and leadership audience.
Both agendas highlight current objectives and motivations, research gaps and priorities, and a regional analysis of research & innovation needs to accelerate cities climate change action, drawing on the latest understanding on cities climate change science.
This launch at ICLEI’s Research Symposium will be the first occasion to popularize the Updated GRAA, to be followed by the World Urban Forum and COP27 later in the year. With the IPCC Working Groups II and III reports which highlight the importance of cities for Adaptation and Mitigation, the Updated GRAA will also be a building block towards the IPCCs special report on Cities and Climate Change.
