The French Minister of Housing, Emmanuelle Wargon, together with outgoing IUCN President, Zhang Xinsheng, opened Summit. Proceedings entailed two high-level political segments and four thematic roundtables before the French Secretary of State for Biodiversity, Bérangère Abba, drew the event to a close.
Political leaders of some 13 cities and regions announced ambitious action pledges to help deliver the Nature 2030 IUCN Programme and, by extension, the post-2020 global biodiversity framework, Paris Agreement and Sustainable Development Goals.
The Summit included four round tables titled Financing the green recovery, Deploying Nature-based Solutions, Realising environmental rights, and Advancing ecological urbanism.
Discussions on local action for nature ensued throughout the IUCN Congress, not least at the Urban Planet Pavilion. On the final day, IUCN Members adopted a historic resolution to create a new membership category for subnational governments, essentially paving the way for the voices of cities and regions to be heard in the heart of the conservation community. IUCN is now fully committed to welcoming subnational governments into the IUCN family and to partnering with them to deliver conservation outcomes at scale.
In alignment with the Edinburgh Process and pertaining Edinburgh Declaration, the IUCN Local Action Summit helped build momentum towards the adoption of a renewed and strengthened ‘Plan of Action on Subnational Governments, Cities and Other Local Authorities for Biodiversity’ at the 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP15) in Kunming China, 11-24 October 2021.
The Summit was organised by the IUCN Urban Alliance and the IUCN European Regional Office, with the financial support of Arcadia, a charitable fund of Lisbet Rausing and Peter Baldwin, and CITEO, a sustainable waste management company. In-kind support was provided by the IUCN French National Committee, ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability, French Office for Biodiversity, Expertise France, the World Commission on Protected Areas and IUCN Centre for Mediterranean Cooperation.
The IUCN Local Action Summit webpage has more details of specific commitments, announcements and discussions from the Summit.
