GCOM & COM MED AT COP28: BUILDING CLIMATE-NEUTRAL AND RESILIENT CITIES

“When the first cyclone comes,” said Doreen Miller Robinson, Special Administrator of Labasa Town Council in Fiji, “you think it’s just bad luck – a one-in-50-year event.” However, when that cyclone was followed soon after by another, and then another, each creating as much havoc as the last, it became clear to the council that this was a shift brought about by climate change to which they would be forced to adapt.

Labasa is just one of many cities that shared insights from their struggle against climate change at CoP28 during an EU side-event jointly hosted by the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate & Energy (GCoM) and the Covenant of Mayors for the Mediterranean (CoM Med). The event demonstrated that approaches to climate change are as diverse as they are unified, with local leaders worldwide deploying unique strategies rooted in common themes.