Speaker: Anne-Helene Prieur-Richard

To help local governments achieve their climate-related objectives, city networks have an increasingly prominent role in providing support and guidance with decision-making and technical activities. Such elements require strong policy-practitioner interactions, yet there can often be disconnect between researchers, policy-makers and practitioners when understanding the challenges and solutions to transition to a sustainable future. Thus, this session will aim at: 1) Providing an overview of how city networks can effectively support the integration of climate science into decision-making processes and planning; 2) Identifying gaps in existing climate data (availability, quality, accessibility and applicability) in various local governments, in order to provide feedback on how the 6th Assessment Report (AR6) could better support and enable local governments to reduce GHG emissions and improve resiliency, and; 3) Providing pathways that will foster more efficient researcher-practitioners-policy-makers interactions, as well as co-production of knowledge so that climate science can readily respond to the needs of local governments and support their climate actions. Panelists and delegates will engage in a participatory conversation on how climate science is applied by local governments, as well as exploring how city networks can support them in assessing their vulnerability to climate-change impacts by fostering stronger interactions between researchers, practitioners and policy-makers.