Session Annotation:

An introduction to the need for and the potential for building urban resilience, within the framework of the Sustainable Development Goals, the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction and the Paris Climate agreement.

Session Overview:

The session will explore the need for and potential to build resilience in an urbanising world. It will use the framing of the Sustainable Development Goals, especially SDG 11 “make cities inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable” in relation to the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction and the mitigation and adaptation imperatives of the Paris Climate agreement, particularly the opportunity of keeping below 1.5C of global warming. It will explore building resilience to disaster risk by reducing exposure and vulnerability and building adaptive capacity. It will outline how accelerating the sustainable urban and infrastructural transition can contribute to climate and disaster resilience, and meeting multiple SDG targets in varied contexts. The importance of key enablers e.g. governance, institutional capacity, finance, innovation and technology to make this possible will also be examined.