First round of initiatives join the Race to Resilience

Tuesday, 30 March 2021 | By Climate Champions

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Ahead of the UK’s Climate and Development Ministerial tomorrow, High Level Champions for the UK and Chile, Nigel Topping and Gonzalo Muñoz – in partnership with COP26 Champion for Adaptation and Resilience, Anne-Marie Travelyan – hosted an Action Dialogue with Ministers, non-state actors and civil society leaders to announce the first round of initiatives joining the Race to Resilience campaign.

In total, 20 initiatives are officially joining the Race to Resilience as partners, driving a step-change in global ambition and action on resilience. In the lead-up to COP26 and beyond, the campaign will bring these initiatives together to share best practices, develop progress metrics, and collectively mass mobilize actors dedicated to protecting people and nature.

These initiatives already have a combined global reach of over a billion people, focusing on a wide-range of issues. Speaking at the event, Trevelyan said: “I am delighted to see the Race to Resilience bringing together initiatives covering all aspects of resilience: from water resilience to nature-based solutions, to disaster risk reduction, to agricultural resilience, to finance and insurance. These diverse and innovative initiatives will all contribute to reducing vulnerability and strengthening resilience.”

With these initiatives now onboard, the Race to Resilience is answering the call for more coordinated action on adaptation and resilience by:

Providing a knowledge space for non-state actors to share traditional knowledge and best practises on resilience
Building an inclusive campaign that convenes and connects initiatives and local leaders to produce partnerships and collaboration on resilience and adaptation
Creating a metrics framework which will enable the initiatives to transparently assess the impact of resilience measures
Simplifying the process for individual actors to join Race to Resilience initiatives and creating an expert support group to provide scientific evidence and expertise to initiatives
Putting resilience at the centre of the COP26 narrative by placing resilience on par with climate mitigation
Building a diverse resilience coalition of resilience actors – from civil society representatives to international finance organisations to identify barriers to resilience and the breakthroughs needed to overcome them

Speaking before the Action Dialogues, UK High-Level Champion Nigel Topping said: “Today is a big day for the Race to Resilience campaign. Our round one initiatives will be driving the step-change in global ambition for resilience, helping make communities around the world more resilient to climate shocks so they can thrive in spite of them.”

Chile High-Level Champion Gonzalo Muñoz said: “We are very happy with the diversity of the initiatives joining the Race today and the ambitious action they are pledging. We want more organisations to join the campaign either by setting up an initiative or joining one of those who have come on board. The more ambition we have from initiatives taking part in the Race to Resilience the more we can raise the ambition of states ahead of COP.”

Join the Race to Resilience

Non-state actor-led regional, national or global initiatives are invited to express their interest to join the Race to Resilience.

Initiatives must share the vision and goals of the Race to Resilience, and meet the following criteria:

Pledge: To translate new and existing targets, directly or indirectly, into the numbers of people from vulnerable groups and communities who will be made more resilient to climate risks
Plan: To use the best knowledge and scientific evidence, and share a clear plan by COP26 to take action towards this commitment with interim targets and milestones
Proceed: To take immediate action to pursue commitment in support of Race to Resilience, and have an active and functional secretariat able to request and monitor members
Publish: Agree to report back on progress annually starting at COP26

To register your interest please fill out this form and send it to resilience@climatechampions.team

For more information on the criteria, please click here.

Partner initiatives joining the Race to Resilience

Agriculture for 1.5

Cities Race to Zero (Resilience) Coalition

EIT Climate-KIC – Forging Resilient Regions

Coalition for Climate Resilient Investment (CCRI)

Extreme Heat Resilience Alliance (EHRA)

Global EverGreening Alliance

Global Mangrove Alliance

Initiative 20×20

Insurance Development Forum