Launch: Annual Report 2025-26
Opening Plenary
The session positions itself as the bridge between commitment and on-ground delivery, where cities, through multilevel action, turn climate pledges into measurable results. Your expertise and insights would be a valuable addition to the discussion, contributing to a shared vision for inclusive, climate-resilient, and sustainable urban development.
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PARALLEL SESSION 1
Rapid urbanisation and climate change are intensifying both urban flooding and seasonal water scarcity, revealing the shortcomings of traditional water management methods.
This session will examine how cities can shift from isolated drainage and water supply solutions to an integrated urban water management approach. Emphasis will be placed on proactive planning, water body rejuvenation, nature-based solutions and community participation to create water-secure, climate-resilient urban areas.
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PARALLEL SESSION 2
The global energy transition is gathering pace, with a record addition of 692 GW of renewable capacity, and India is targeting 500 GW of non-fossil capacity by 2030, a scale-up that will require large-scale energy storage deployments. As cities account for around 70 percent of global emissions, urban mitigation efforts are crucial to meeting these ambitious commitments. For the rapidly growing cities of South Asia, with much of their future building stock yet to be built, how their built environment is designed and powered will play a significant role in shaping this transition.
This session will explore how local governments and distribution companies can scale up net-zero buildings and integrate distributed renewables and storage across the urban built environment and local distribution grids.
Presentation: Municipal Energy Transition and Scale-Up of Net-Zero Buildings
Keynote Address
Presentation: Municipal Energy Transition and Scale-Up of Net-Zero Buildings
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Panel Discussion: Decarbonising the Urban Built Environment: Scaling Sustainable Energy Transition in Cities through Policy, Technology, Finance and Partnerships
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PARALLEL SESSION 3
The session delves into the power and possibilities that lie in the coexistence of the natural and engineered world. This session would additionally highlight the importance of co-benefits, the value of natural assets and biodiversity. The session explores how target 12 of Kunming- Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework can serve as a guiding framework to balance urban ecology, resilience and development.
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Launch: Guidelines on Canal Restoration using Nature-based Solutions
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PARALLEL SESSION 4 (By invite only)
The conversation will connect the emerging global agenda around the Culture Global Stocktake and UNFCCC’s Entertainment and Culture for Climate Action (ECCA) Strategy with the realities of South Asian cities, while moving beyond narrative framing to position culture as an actionable lever for systemic urban resilience.
It will explore how these approaches can inform locally grounded climate action, aligned with the Culture Global Stocktake for Climate Action (CGST), which will deliver its first stocktake at COP31 in Türkiye.
Framing Presentation:
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PARALLEL SESSION 5
The session aims to establish the evidence base and limits of nature-based and hybrid coastal defence approaches in India.
It will examine the technical and planning challenges of shifting from site-specific hard coastal defences to integrated, nature-based and hybrid approaches. The session will delve into looking where interventions such as mangroves, salt marshes, dunes and reefs can provide effective protection, where engineered measures remain necessary, and how these choices can be informed by local coastal dynamics, erosion patterns and ecosystem conditions. Discussion will explore coast-scale planning, community knowledge, urban infrastructure integration, and the policy, financing and institutional mechanisms needed to translate evidence into durable, context-specific solutions.
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PARALLEL SESSION 6
This session will explore integrating public health into climate-resilient urban planning. Experiences from Indian cities and international cities along with expert insights will delve deeper to understand the approaches to embed health in master plans and Climate Resilient City Action Plans.
Context setting Presentation:
MoU Signing
Memorandum of Understanding between Global Buildings Performance Network and ICLEI- Local Governments for Sustainability, South Asia
Presentation: Healthy & Climate Resilient Affordable Housing: Experiences from Indian Cities
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Panel Discussion: Bridging the Gap: Health and Climate-Resilient Urban Planning
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PARALLEL SESSION 7
The session aims to move from young people’s voices to policies and plans that act on them. The discussions in the session will revolve around identifying partnerships between youth, city governments, media and institutions to scale up child- and youth-focussed climate policy and also build approaches to embed youth in governance.
Welcome and introduction:
Keynote Address 1 - Children and the Urban Climate Crisis: Evidence on Heat and Air Pollution, and what Child-Responsive Climate Policy requires
Keynote Address 2 - From Framework to Practice: Embedding young people in Urban Climate Governance through the ACT Framework
Launch: Poster for UNICEF EACH Project
Presentation by winners of the ARISE Cities Forum Youth for Climate Hackathon 2.0 | Action-Oriented Transition: Translating Resilient, Scalable, and Inclusive Solutions for Circular Cities
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PARALLEL SESSION 8 (By invite only) | Jointly organised by C40 Cities and NIUA
C40 Cities and the National Institute of Urban Affairs are jointly convening a closed-door roundtable to bring together key stakeholders to discuss how climate can be systematically mainstreamed into city procurement systems across India. The roundtable aims to:
Facilitator
Opening remarks
Roundtable speakers
Plenary 2
The session will explore the urgent need to mainstream Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) and resilience into urban planning, development and institutional frameworks, with a particular focus on localised Loss & Damage (L&D) assessment. It will bring together experts and city experiences to discuss practical barriers, enabling factors and opportunities for strengthening long-term resilience through inclusive, preparedness and mitigation-oriented approaches to DRR and the scope and need for localised L&D assessment covering both economic and non-economic losses.
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