I joined ICMA in early 2013 as the CityLinks Program Manager. Today I depart for Durban South Africa to participate in the first city to city exchange for CityLinks. During this one week exchange I will be joined by Susanne M.  Torriente, Assistant City Manager, Ft. Lauderdale and Dr. Jennifer Jurado, Director of Natural Resource Planning and Management, Broward County. We will be traveling to Durban together to meet with Dr. Debra Roberts and her team at eThekwini Municipality’s Environmental Planning and Climate Protection Department.

The exchange will address ways in which Durban can begin overcoming social and political challenges to regional climate change adaptation, with a specific focus on sea level rise and biodiversity and ecosystem services. In addition Ft. Lauderdale, in their capacity as participants in previous city to city exchanges, will share best practices with the staff from the City of Durban in an effort to support their role as the Secretariat of the Durban Adaptation Charter, so that they may provide similar exchange opportunities to their signatories. 

In a town hall event with a diverse set of stakeholders, Dr. Jurado and Ms. Torriente will share their experience coordinating regional climate change adaptation efforts in Southeast Florida through the Southeast Florida Regional Climate Compact. Specifically they will address how the counties of Southeast Florida have worked together to:

• Develop annual legislative programs and jointly advocate for state and federal level policies and funding;
• Dedicate staff time and resources to create a Southeast Florida Regional Climate Action plan to include mitigation and adaptation strategies; and
• Meet annually in Regional Climate Summits to mark progress and identify emerging issues.

At the conclusion of the week long exchange the team will strategize ways in which the experience in Southeast Florida might be replicated in the context of Durban. It is planned for the team from Durban to then attend the Southeast Florida Regional Climate Summit in November.

Additional information on the Southeast Florida Climate Compact can be found at http://southeastfloridaclimatecompact.org/. For more information on the Durban adaptation Charter please visit http://www.durbanadaptationcharter.org/. 

Stay tuned for updates and photos!