COP 28 Side Event | Sustainable and Climate-Friendly Reconstruction of Built Environment After Conflicts and Disasters

Many areas around the globe have experienced large-scale damage caused by ongoing conflicts, extreme weather events, environmental degradation, and water stress. Reconstruction of these built environments is often taking place without supporting sustainability regulations. This leads to lower resilience of the newly built infrastructure to climate shocks and misses an opportunity to recover better, keeping in mind social, environmental, and economic aspects. To change this, sustainability has to be put at the forefront of recovery.

An assessment by the World Bank suggests that Ukraine's reconstruction and recovery from Russia’s aggression will cost more than USD 400 billion, with the highest estimated needs (50%) in the transport, housing, and energy sectors. Integrated into these needs are critical steps toward building Ukraine back better with an emphasis on transforming it into a modern, low-carbon, disaster- and climate-resilient country that is aligned with European Union policies and standards. With the massive scale of the damages, Ukraine is facing a big challenge in defining and implementing a sustainable and climate-friendly reconstruction.

In this COP 28 side event, international and Ukrainian experts will discuss frameworks, technologies, policies, and practical steps toward a sustainable reconstruction of infrastructure and the built environment after conflicts and disasters. Speakers will discuss how to reduce greenhouse gas emissions during reconstruction to avoid unnecessary climate impacts and share experience in planning reconstruction on national and city levels.

Speakers

Nathalie Bernasconi-Osterwalder, Interim Co-President and Co-CEO, International Institute for Sustainable Development

Mohammad Asfour, Founding Chair, Watershed and Development Initiative Jordan

Lennard de Klerk, Lead Author, Initiative on GHG Accounting of War

Oleksii Riabchyn, Senior Research Fellow, Kyiv School of Economics

Daryna Kulaga, Research Fellow, Kyiv School of Economics

Maksym Vereshchak, Key Expert, Covenant of Mayors, East

Anna Ackermann, Policy Analyst, Green Reconstruction of Ukraine, International Institute for Sustainable Development

Oliver Rapf, Executive Director, Buildings Performance Institute Europe