The world is not on track to make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable (SDG 11). Every third urban resident in the Global South lives in informal settlements while the number of people living in urban areas highly exposed to the physical impacts of climate change is fast growing. Besides natural growth, rural-urban migration as a livelihood diversification strategy and, already now, climate-induced migration and displacement continue to foster the trend of urbanisation, especially in countries of the Global South. Urban migrants and refugees as well as communities that live in informal settlements are particularly and increasingly at risk of experiencing climate-induced loss and damage. Greater consideration of the voices of vulnerable urban communities in global, national and sub-national climate policy frameworks is critical to enable effective response to the climate crisis in urban contexts.

This year offers a momentum to advance the global ambition on cities and climate resilience with the forthcoming World Urban Forum (4–8 November 2024, Egypt), the Bonn Climate Change Conference (5–15June 2024), and COP29 (11–22 November 2024, Azerbaijan) where issues of justice, inclusiveness and finance will be high on the agenda. Against this background, this conference, co-hosted by the German Institute of Development and Sustainability (IDOS) and Misereor, the German Catholic Bishops’ Organisation for Development Cooperation, aims to bring insights from research, governmental and non-governmental organisations on emerging policy issues for implementing the UN urban and climate agendas with a particular focus on empowering urban communities towards building a resilient future.