Arup at COP29

Date: 12 November 2024, 15:00 - 16:15 (AZT)
Location: Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure pavilion, Blue Zone
Arup speaker: Jo da Silva, Chief Sustainability Officer

The session will focus on understanding the different policy levers and enablers required to ensure investment in disaster-resilient infrastructure (DRI) since creating an enabling environment for private sector investment in DRI, particularly in emerging markets and developing economies, remains a challenge. While at the same time, it is equally crucial to demonstrate the investment benefits of resilient infrastructure to make these projects economically attractive to private investors. The session will also delve into the critical role of multilateral development banks in mobilising greater financing for disaster-resilient infrastructure. 

Date: 13 November 2024, 09:30 - 11:00 (AZT)
Location: Water for Climate pavilion, Blue Zone
Arup speaker: Louise Ellis, Associate Director, Martin Shouler, Associate Director

This event will focus on enhancing urban water resilience through multi-level and cross-sectoral cooperation. Arup with partners will launch a report entitled: Advancing Urban Water Resilience through Multi-level Governance: A Collaborative Call to Action at this event.

Date: 13 November 2024, 16:00 - 17:30 (AZT)
Location: Water for Climate pavilion, Blue Zone
Arup speaker: Louise Ellis, Associate Director, Martin Shouler, Associate Director

As part of the Water for Climate pavilion's urban water day, Arup is convening this event to explore the current state and future potential of funding in the water sector. This event will engage with traditional and new models of investment including development banks, corporate stewardship, insurance, and ecosystem markets to identify barriers and opportunities to unlock funding and draw lessons from other sectors to support urban water resilience.

Date: 14 November 2024, 11:10 - 12:10 (AZT)
Location: UK pavilion, Blue Zone
Arup speaker: Charlotte Higgins, Associate Director

This roundtable will bring together tech companies, energy companies, policymakers and other experts to discuss how to optimise infrastructure to integrate two significant emerging sources of energy demand: data centres and AI. The discussion will consider how to manage the extra expected demand, how regulation and legislation can keep up, and how stakeholders can work together to facilitate the increase in demand for power and grid interconnection being driven by generative AI.

Date: 14 November 2024, 16:00 - 17:00 (AZT)
Location: UN Global Compact Business Hub, Blue Zone
Arup speaker: Jo da Silva, Chief Sustainability Officer

This panel will delve into the pivotal role that clear, measurable targets and transparent reporting play in advancing corporate climate action. Industry leaders will share their insights and experiences in committing to ambitious climate goals, discussing both the challenges they have faced and the benefits of integrating robust reporting frameworks. The discussion will emphasize how setting concrete targets and ensuring accountability – through mechanisms like science-based targets and global reporting standards – are essential for tracking progress, meeting international commitments, and building trust with stakeholders.

Date: 15 November 2024, 13:00 - 14:30 (AZT)
Location: Buildings and Cooling pavilion, Blue Zone
Arup speakers: Jo da Silva, Chief Sustainability Officer, Peter Vangsbo, Associate Director

This session will focus on urban overheating as an issue of urgency for national and sub-national governments, those involved in urban planning, building design, facilities management, and engagement with occupants. It will focus on the scale and severity of the overheating challenge and on identifying the most effective practical solutions for use from household to city scale. 

The event will draw together representatives from organisations with expert knowledge in urban heat and it will seek to integrate discussions at risk of becoming increasingly separate - those about the technical approaches to addressing indoor heat (within buildings), outdoor heat (at neighbourhood scale), the role of humidity in intensifying the impacts of heat, and ways of embedding issues of equity within decision making. It will bring together those who focus on the design of urban environments and buildings with those who lead city operations and who engage with residents and building occupants.

Date: 16 November 2024, 10:15 - 11:00 (AZT)
Location: Danish pavilion, Blue Zone
Arup speaker: Peter Vangsbo, Associate Director

The session will focus on the companies and investors backing climate technologies that are not quite at mass adoption, and the opportunities these create.

Date: 16 November 2024, 11:30 - 12:30 (AZT)
Location: Deloitte pavilion, Green Zone
Arup speaker: Timurhan Timur, Director

This session explores how data-driven predictive capabilities are transforming how to anticipate, design, and build infrastructure resilience. Specialists will discuss how cutting-edge technologies are accelerating what’s necessary and possible in the face of evolving challenges.

Date: 16 November 2024, 12:00 - 13:00 (AZT)
Location: The Resilience Hub, Blue Zone
Arup speaker: Jo da Silva, Chief Sustainability Officer

This event aims to explore and showcase the emerging, effective risk assessment approaches, defining and measuring, of resilience in the built environment. By focusing on real-world implementation and assessment approaches from various geographies across the built environment value chain, the event will distil common principles that can be scaled globally to enhance urban resilience against climate impacts. The ultimate goal is to support the implementation of the 2030 Climate Solutions, the Buildings Breakthrough and contribute to global adaptation goals.

Date: 16 November 2024, 14:30 - 15:15 (AZT)
Location: Nordic pavilion, Blue Zone
Arup speaker: Peter Vangsbo, Associate Director

This session will share the findings from UNFCCC's Nordic engagement in mitigation work program which showcases Nordic solutions and best practice on climate-resilient cities, buildings and urban systems.

Date: 18 November 2024, 10:30 - 11:00 (AZT)
Location: Buildings and Cooling pavilion, Blue Zone
Arup speaker: Will Wild, Senior Engineer

This session will explain the role and significance of the Declaration de Chaillot and its follow-up actions, highlighting the coherence between various frameworks, including the GlobalABC, the Buildings Breakthrough Target, the Declaration de Chaillot, and the ICBC. It will also provide an opportunity for partners to share their expectations regarding the future direction of the ICBC and broader climate initiatives in the building sector.

Date: 18 November 2024, 11:30 - 13:00 (AZT)
Location: Buildings and Cooling pavilion, Blue Zone
Arup speaker: Nigel Tonks, Director

This session will showcase action and progress on market transformation since the launch of this agenda. Speakers will highlight the need and importance of strategic collaboration, and they will present actions that are taking place across the 3 levers and 11 interventions that reinforce each other for the whole system to shift.

Date: 18 November 2024, 16:00 - 17:30 (AZT)
Location: Buildings and Cooling pavilion, Blue Zone
Arup speaker: Nigel Tonks, Director

This event will provide the audience with an understanding of the challenges faced by countries when designing NDCs. It will showcase guidelines and policy briefs which aim to support policy makers and stakeholders in raising NDC ambitions to drive climate finance towards a zero-emissions, efficient, resilient and inclusive buildings and construction sector.

Date: 19 November 2024, 10:00 - 11:30 (AZT)
Location: Blue Zone
Arup speaker: Martin Shouler, Associate Director

This Marrakesh Partnership for Global Climate Actions event for Water Action will spotlight urban water resilience, featuring fireside chats with city leaders and experts moderated by Arup. The event will showcase global water-inspired climate solutions, emphasising the leadership of youth, women, and local and indigenous communities, and will launch initiatives to bolster resilience and nature-based solutions funding.

Date: 19 November 2024, 12:30 - 14:00 (AZT)
Location: Buildings and Cooling pavilion, Blue Zone
Arup speaker: Peter Vangsbo, Associate Director

Opportunity for the Nordic Council of Ministers to make a relevant intervention showcasing its willingness for action within the built environment in that region.

Date: 19 November 2024, 14:00 - 15:00 (AZT)
Location: Denmark pavilion, Blue Zone
Arup speaker: Peter Vangsbo, Associate Director

This panel debate will discuss the pivotal role of gender and youth in the green transition. By showcasing female and young climate leaders, the panel aims to demonstrate the importance of incorporating diverse perspectives in the development of effective and equitable climate policies. The discussion will explore strategies for better inclusion of women and young people, ensuring a just green transition.

Date: 19 November 2024, 16:30 - 17:30 (AZT)
Location: Global Cement and Concrete pavilion, Blue Zone
Arup speaker: Timurhan Timur, Director

This session will feature a range of viewpoints and regional perspectives, the participants will present and discuss delivering a more resilient built environment and the role of standards and voluntary assessments in enabling more widespread and effective adaption action. Hear about action for low income housing in emerging economies and addressing risks to commercial developments.

Date: 20 November 2024, 09:00 - 10:30 (AZT)
Location: UNDP pavilion, Blue Zone
Arup speaker: Léan Doody, Director

The event highlights the pivotal role of cities in addressing climate change and celebrates the launch of the Urban Learning Centre’s Pathways for Economic Growth (P4EG) guide and funding and financing for cities course. These resources, developed by DG NEAR and UNDP in partnership with Arup and Climate KIC’s Net Zero Cities, aim to empower over 400 municipalities in the Eastern Partnership region by providing them with the knowledge and tools to foster economic development within planetary boundaries, and in line with the EU Green Deal.

Date: 20 November 2024, 11:30 - 12:30 (AZT)
Location: Deloitte pavilion, Green Zone
Arup speaker: Léan Doody, Director

Over the next two decades, trillions of US dollars are forecasted to be spent on infrastructure. It's an enormous opportunity to improve civic life — but the question is how to develop new innovative, sustainable, and equitable approaches to designing urban spaces that positively impact the well-being of citizens. A wide range of issues should be considered as part of infrastructure solution, including renewable generation, decarbonization, grid resilience, transportation, electrification, climate change impacts, modernizing urban environments — and more. In this panel, leaders in government, infrastructure, and sustainable development will discuss what it will take to ensure the urban spaces of the future are resilient, equitable and sustainable for the people who live there.

Date: 20 November 2024, 15:15 - 16:00 (AZT)
Location: Danish pavilion, Blue Zone
Arup speaker: Peter Vangsbo, Associate Director

This event will focus on nature-based solutions (NbS) for climate adaptation inside cities. It will hear the perspectives of representatives from two different cities and their climate challenges and discuss how nature can be harnessed to support climate resilience in urban areas via green and blue solutions targeting urban heat, flooding, and coastal erosion.  

The event will feature recent findings from UNEP Copenhagen Climate Centre's latest publications on NbS as well as UNEP’s Adaptation Gap Report 2024. It will be supported by the perspective of the private sector in providing green and blue solutions addressing climate challenges inside cities.

Date: 21 November 2024, 09:30 - 11:00 (AZT)
Location: Singapore pavilion, Blue Zone
Arup speaker: Léan Doody, Director

Nature and biodiversity are recognised to have wide-ranging benefits for cities such as providing ecosystem services and enhancing well-being. How can the adoption of nature-based solutions be accelerated in cities? How can we better assess the multi-functional benefits of nature?

Date: 21 November 2024, 13:00 - 14:30 (AZT)
Location: Buildings and Cooling pavilion, Blue Zone
Arup speaker: Nigel Tonks, Director

One of the key issues facing the construction industry is the lack of agreed-upon processes for measuring embodied carbon. Emissions from embodied carbon contribute around 13% of annual global greenhouse gas emissions and will be responsible for 50% of the entire carbon footprint of new construction between now and 2050. 

Join this panel discussion to hear how a group of companies came together to conduct a proof of concept to address this with the goal of identifying best practices toward establishing industry-wide guidelines for embodied carbon analysis to create actionable benchmarks.