G20: Mayoral Summit to discuss climate finance, water security, urban economy & governance
The participating Mayors from across the world would also engage during closed doors sessions on both days to further deliberate on U20 priorities and sustainability agenda for cities.
U20 Engagement Group of G20 is going to meet on 7-8 July for the Mayoral Summit, which will be attended by over 500 participants including mayors, Deputy Mayors, city officials and knowledge partners. Delegates and participants from 57 cities across the world and 35 cities from India will gather in the twin cities of Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar.
This sixth cycle of Urban 20, is an Engagement Group under the G20. By facilitating discussions among cities from the G20 countries, the U20 establishes a platform for cities to collectively inform G20 negotiations with respect to urban priorities.
Besides the inaugural session and the handover of the U20 Communiqué by the Mayors to the G20 leaders, a number of thematic sessions and spotlight events have been included in the two-day schedule. In this endeavour, Ahmedabad is supported by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) as the nodal ministry, the National Institute of Urban Affairs (NIUA), the Technical Secretariat of U20, and the U20 Conveners, C40 Cities and UCLG (United Cities and Local Governments).
This meeting will be inaugurated by the Chief Minister of Gujarat, Bhupendrabhai Patel. Thematic sessions on the six U20 priority areas will be organized during the summit. The U20 priority areas echo the emphasis G20 is laying on environmental responsibility, climate finance, and cities of the future.
The six priorities under U20 are namely- ‘encouraging environmentally responsible behaviours’, ‘accelerating climate finance’, ‘ensuring water security’, ‘promoting local culture and economy’, ‘reinventing frameworks for urban governance and planning’, and ‘catalyzing digital urban futures.’
The Thematic Sessions will include talks and presentations by Mayors or equivalent city leaders from the cities of Tokyo, Riyadh, Paris, Surat, Srinagar, Amman, Los Angeles, New York City, Katowice, Rio de Janeiro, Dubai, Indore, Kitchener, London, Montevideo, Johannesburg, Kochi and Durban among others.
Several knowledge partners are collaborating with NIUA to organize these sessions. These include World Economic Forum (WEF), C40 Cities, All India Institute of Local Self Government (AIILSG), UNESCO, UNICEF, GIZ, and ICLEI.
The participating Mayors from across the world would also engage during closed doors sessions on both days to further deliberate on U20 priorities and sustainability agenda for cities.
