The Asian Disaster Preparedness Center (ADPC), in partnership with the Southern Denmark University, Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies (Italy), the University of Sheffield (UK), and the Ministries of Environment of Sri Lanka and Estonia (Parties to COP), organized an official COP29 side event titled “Enhancing Urban Climate Action Ambition through Multilevel Governance” on 12 November 2024 from 18:30 to 20:00 hours. This event underscored the significance of multilateral governance in accelerating climate actions to mitigate disaster risks and boost urban resilience. Dr. Senaka Basnayake, Chief, Climate Resilience of ADPC emphasized the need for regional drought risk management strategies to support national initiatives. He highlighted the role of such strategies in helping urban authorities promote climate actions like water conservation, WASH improvements, green infrastructure expansion, and risk-informed urban planning. He also announced that ADPC, in partnership with UNCCD, will launch a regional drought risk management strategy for South Asia at the UNCCD COP16 in December in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Panel discussions centered on cities' roles in national climate policies and strategies to elevate urban climate action ambition. The two panels, comprising national government officials, international organizations, and academia, explored recent research on urban climate policies, the private sector, energy, disaster risk reduction, and water management. Panelists included representatives from the EU, UN-Habitat, UNESCO, UNEP, UNDP, the Norwegian Research Council, the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy (GCom), the Urban Climate Change Research Network (UCCRN) of Columbia University, and the University of Venice, Italy.