UN recognizes Bonn for climate resilience leadership
A long-term municipal champion of climate and disaster resilience was today recognized for its consistent leadership on risk reduction actions.
The Making Cities Resilient 2030 (MCR2030) global partnership acknowledged Bonn – Germany’s United Nations City – as a Resilience Hub for committing to scale up its own climate emergency response and help other municipalities do the same.
The Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary General for Disaster Risk Reduction, Ms. Mami Mizutori, highlighted Bonn’s ‘long and proud history of providing international leadership on reducing disaster risk’, referring to how it was the very first city to sign up to the original Making Cities Resilient Campaign back in 2010.
‘Looking at Bonn’s 3-year action plan as a Resilience Hub I am delighted to see such a strong commitment to share its experience in several areas of climate and disaster risk reduction,’ Ms Mizutori said.
‘I welcome the plan’s focus on key areas, including the critical importance of urban water management, the need for quality and accessible risk communication, and the imperative to take an all-of-society approach to disaster risk reduction.’
‘This will provide a huge boost to the wider MCR2030 network which has more than 1,500 local governments worldwide eager to learn more from the very best in the business.’
The Mayor of Bonn, Ms Katja Dörner, said her city was ‘honored and happy to be part of this movement for resilience’ as part of wider efforts to implement the Political Declaration of the Midterm Review of the Sendai Framework, adopted last month by the countries at the United Nations General Assembly.
‘In the next three years, we will be able to share and exchange our experience in the fields where our resilience is challenged, for instance by heatwaves, wildfires, flooding, and heavy rains,’ Ms Dörner said.
‘This work is guided by our sustainability strategy, the integrated climate and flood protection concepts. We decided to not set up a separate resilience strategy, but to strengthen the existing structures and concepts.
‘We all are aware of the global “polycrisis” and the recent review on the Sendai Framework – it is high time for better governance, investments in resilience, and a focus on disaster prevention.’
The MCR2030 Resilience Hub certificate ceremony took place at the Daring Cities 2023 event, hosted by Bonn, attracting local government leaders and practitioners from around the world.
Bonn joins 21 other MCR2030 Resilience Hubs recognized for their leadership on disaster risk reduction.
The presentation was part of the opening of the MCR2030 Resilience Hub and Local Governments Forum which aimed to agree recommendations on how the Hubs individually and collectively could provide greater support and leadership on climate resilience.
The Political Declaration on the midterm review of the Sendai Framework cited ‘deep concern that the pace of implementation is not sufficient or equal’.
To address this worrying assessment, the Political Declaration made several recommendations, including calling upon Member States to increase participation in the Making Cities Resilient 2030 initiative to promote exchanges between cities’.
MCR2030 is a United Nations-led global partnership that has mobilized 28 national governments, 10 national municipality associations, and 1,530 local governments, committed to strengthening local disaster and climate resilience.
At the international level, MCR2030 has convened a ‘who’s who’ of partners with unmatched expertise and experience of supporting urban resilience. MCR2030 provides a platform for more than 240 disaster risk reduction-related services.