Under the Global Campaign on Sustainable Urbanization, UN-HABITAT organised and hosted an Expert Group Meeting on Cities in Climate Change in November, 2007 in Nairobi, Kenya bringing together participants from research institutions, local authorities, the private sector, and colleagues from different UN agencies. The main outcomes are summarized in the following:

• UN-HABITAT has a clear mandate to deal with cities in climate change
• UN-HABITAT should build on its core competencies: by using its connections with local authorities, it can provide support in adapting to climate change in governance, planning and management through a participatory decision-making approach
• Climate change should be regarded as a cross-cutting issue and integrated into UN-HABITAT’s existing initiatives

Future Actions
Networks

• Launching of the Sustainable Urban Development Network (SUD-Net) in 2008 for strengthening the performance of local governments to enhance climate change mitigation and adaptation measures in developing countries
• Coining new partnerships with, for example, the private sector, and strengthening existing partnerships with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the World Bank, United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) among others
• Promoting city-to-city cooperation

Tools and Knowledge Management

• Conducting vulnerability assessments and risk mapping at the local level
• Providing guidelines for local authorities in adaptive local planning
• Bridging the gap between research and practice

Awareness raising, Education, Training and Capacity Building

• Collecting and sharing case studies on good practice
• Promoting energy efficient buildings and settlement structures
• Developing mechanisms to assist cities in preventing land-use conflicts arising from relocation of human settlements
• Incorporating climate change into primary, secondary and tertiary education

Policy Dialogue

• Assisting governments in translating National Adaptation Plans of Action (NAPA’s) to Local Adaptation Plans of Action (LAPA’s) together with adequate transfer of resources
• Highlighting the neglected urban dimension in the global climate change debate