Sebastian Navarro – Secretary-General, CC35
Cristina Gomez – Lead, Nature-Positive Cities, World Economic Forum
Chris Ballard – CEO, Passive House Canada
His Worship Andrew Swaby – Mayor, Kingston & St. Andrew Municipal Corporation
“Climate change should not be feared, but looked upon as an opportunity to implement efforts that in the best way make Kingston more resilient. We have partnered with the forestry department and have a mandate to plant 4 million trees.”
“There is an important incentive to create municipal, local initiatives, and to get national governments to step up and create that level playing field.”
“We believe we need more legislation at the local level first. No more voluntary commitments – we need to accelerate the transition connected to resilience and de-carbonization with the commitment of the local government.”
“There are a lot of solutions and good practices around cities that are naturally positive. When we talk about nature-positive cities, we are talking about cities that are not only avoiding harm to nature and restoring nature, but really transforming the economic system so they internalize the value of nature in their decision making.”