By Sallieu S. Kanu
New York, 27 September 2024: Ending her participation in UNGA 2024 Climate Week, Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr, Mayor of Freetown and Co-Chair of C40 Cities, spoke on a panel titled Harnessing Public-Private Collaboration for Climate-Resilient Cities, hosted by the Z Zurich Foundation and C40 at the Zurich offices.
Later in the day, Mayor Aki-Sawyerr delivered the keynote address at the Climate Mobility Summit, where she highlighted the fact that cities are increasingly magnets for rural-urban migration driven by climate change as the climate crisis is severely impacting subsistence agriculture. Innovate solutions and financing are required by cities to build resilience and productively absorb this population growth.
During a roundtable on “The Road from the Summit of the Future to COP30: Intergenerational Leadership” at the United Nations Headquarters, Mayor Aki-Sawyerr delivered closing remarks, highlighting the crucial role of young people in advancing climate action. The event, organized by C40 Cities’ partners Global Optimism in collaboration with the We Are Family Foundation, brought together climate leaders from diverse fields. Among the attendees were Christiana Figueres, architect of the Paris Climate Agreement; Sonia Guajajara, Brazil’s Minister for Indigenous Peoples, and youth climate advocates from around the world.
On Thursday, Mayor Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr joined a high-level panel hosted by the Rockefeller Foundation and Goals House, which focused on critical actions needed to protect health in the face of climate change. There, she underscored the importance of investing in heat resilience to safeguard communities and ecosystems from extreme heat, again emphasizing the need for access to finance by cities to address the climate crisis.
Mayor Aki-Sawyerr then participated in a panel titled “Growing solutions: Local actions for people, planet and peace” held at the United Nations Headquarters. The other panelists were Anacláudia Rossbach, Undersecretary-General and Executive Director, UN-Habitat and David Miller, Former Mayor of Toronto and Managing Director C40 Centre for City Climate Policy and Economy. The panel followed a submission by former President of Liberia, Her Excellency Madam Ellen Johnson Sirleaf who then remained in the audience for the panel discussion.
Mayor Aki-Sawyerr also joined a fireside chat at a Mastercard Centre for Inclusive Growth which focused on digital transformations and urban mobility, ending the Climate Week with the delivery of a closing keynote address at the Climate World Biodiversity Summit.