Connections and exchanges made during the conference in Addis Ababa enables important collaborations for JPI Urban Europe. Africa is the region hit the second hardest from human-induced Climate change, right after the Polar Regions. Therefore, the format of the African Climate Risk Conference comes at a very important moment in time. Research and innovation can become more challenge-driven by being understood from a wide range of places and contexts. JPI Urban Europe contributes to this in a number of ways, including through the Sustainable Urbanization Global Initiative (SUGI), which was the theme of the session organized by the program in Addis Ababa. The issues surrounding food, water and energy, which are at the heart of the SUGI call, are taking different forms in different parts of the world but share certain characteristics. The African Climate Risk Conference 2019 gave the opportunity to broaden the areas of cooperation around this challenge.
In the session, representatives of the CRUNCH (Climate Resilient Urban Nexus CHoices: operationalising the Food-Water- Energy Nexus) and IFWEN (Innovation in Food-Water-Energy Nexus) presented their co-creative approaches, findings and the added value the project’s create by involving partners beyond Europe.
SUGI is about addressing urban challenges by bringing together food-water-energy-nexus knowledge. It is a joint initiative established by JPI Urban Europe and the Belmont Forum to enable research collaboration worldwide. Belmont Forum is a group of the world’s largest and strongest growing funders of global environmental research. Through SUGI, actors are now gathering to take advantage of each other’s capacity and form the necessary innovative solutions to food, water and energy issues. Fifteen projects are funded and currently in progress around the world to respond to this challenge. The ultimate goal is improved accessibility and quality of life.
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