Daring Cities

The virtual experience for urban decision-makers leading in the climate emergency

ICLEI and the Federal City of Bonn welcome you to Daring Cities, a virtual, global forum on climate change for urban leaders taking on the climate emergency.

Daring Cities is designed to empower urban decision-makers – such as mayors, city councilors, administrators, and urban thought leaders, as well as national government representatives, researchers, technical staff, business leaders, civil society decision-makers and community organizers – to lead in the climate emergency.

Daring Cities 2021 will build upon the success of last year’s premiere edition, which was the largest online gathering of the urban community on the climate emergency to date.

Over 4500 attendees engaged in Daring Cities 2020 over the course of the three-week long virtual forum, which featured around 100 virtual offerings and 500 speakers, including the UN Secretary General, 8 Ministers, 7 UN Agency chiefs, and more than 150 Mayors, Governors, Councillors and other urban leaders.

Welcome to Bonn, home of Daring Cities 2021

The current challenge: Taking on the climate emergency

With the onset of the Coronavirus pandemic, every sector of society across every corner of the globe has been turned upside down, and the work to address climate change is being reprioritized, interrupted or delayed. Local and regional governments have had to redeploy sustainability resources to ensure immediate safeguarding of their residents and employees.

On the international level, we are experiencing major disruptions of the global climate process.

But climate science hasn’t changed. The climate emergency is still happening right now, in our cities, towns and regions around the world.

The Global Virtual Forum for Urban Leaders Taking on the Climate Emergency

Daring Cities invites urban leaders from around the world who are pushing boundaries in their own contexts to come together online to exchange on how to take on resilience and mitigation in the time of urgent climate and health crisis. Urban leaders from around the world are invited to be a part of this productive and action-oriented virtual event.