The thirteenth session of the World Urban Forum (WUF13) takes place in Baku, Azerbaijan, from 17 to 22 May 2026. The theme of WUF13 is: Housing the world: Safe and resilient cities and communities.
Climate peace and security (CPS) frameworks have thus far largely ignored the specificities of urban environments. In the face of rapid urbanization as well as city-specific disaster and conflict risks, it is timely to develop frameworks and tools that explicitly address the CPS nexus in an urban environment because rapid urbanisation compounds climate vulnerability by concentrating populations in informal, climate-exposed settlements. Climate stresses drive further urbanisation through rural push factors. Both processes interact to create conditions that can exacerbate the possibility of urban conflict. Such urban climate, peace and security approaches can build on the expertise of urban specialists which is well illustrated in the timely UNHABITAT report Rising temperatures, rising tensions: The urban climate-conflict nexus amid the global housing crisis. A series of consultations and dialogues co-hosted by the Climate Security Mechanism at the UN (CSM), adelphi, and the Environmental Peacebuilding Association started in August 2025, with the intention to develop a CSM Policy Brief. This work aims to fill the conceptual gap and foster a solutions-based conversation that reflects priority themes, approaches, and good practices to guide future involvement in urban areas. Urbanisation is a megatrend but more understanding needed on how rapid urbanisation (including conflict-driven urbanisation) intensifies and reshapes the climate-peace-security nexus. The urban environment can also offer solutions: environmental peacebuilding and urban nature-based programs can offer platforms to build confidence and sustain peace. The UN's community violence reduction programmes have showed the UN can have a role. There are many additional very localized examples of bottom-up activities that have fostered climate resilience while sustaining peace. In such cases the displaced and informal communities have often played a key role. This side-event will present a draft Urban CPS Policy Brief and seek feedback by local authorities and city networks. It important that the policy brief reflects urban realities on the ground. The event will focus on specifically urban risks as well as on the roles and capacities of city authorities in preventing climate-related impacts from cascading and escalating. It will feature authors of the Policy Brief on 'Urban Climate Peace and Security' to introduce its main ideas, solicit further comments, and explore pathways for further action. Facilitator: Matti Lehtonen Partners: UNEP, Climate Security Mechanism (United States of America)
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