Cities across the world and in Asia are developing strategies and programmes to promote smart city technologies in their territories mainly with a focus on climate mitigation (smart transport, smart buildings, smart grids, etc). Anyway, the potential of smart solutions for local climate adaptation and resilience has not been fully explored yet. This session aims to leverage the importance of innovation spaces to address local climate resilience challenges and smart solutions development, under collaborative approaches and stakeholder engagement tools.

The session will be interactive and will take place in a three-step format simulating the innovation journey that cities might face in addressing climate-resilience actions. Actors from different backgrounds and geographies will be invited to discuss how Asian cities could build a pathway that drives climate resilience, embedding smart technologies and citizens’ engagement mechanisms in their urban sustainability strategies.  Cities in the region will present their challenges, followed by a discussion with stakeholders from Europe and Asia, covering three issues: lack of climate data and appropriate local indicators for decision making; slow adoption of smart solutions for key sectors of the economy (e.g. agriculture, water management), and development of climate-resilient infrastructure. Finally, all participants in the session will exchange ideas on key innovation opportunities to enhance climate-resilience of the participant cities and local governments in general.