Eight signs 2026 isn’t business as usual for urban sustainability agendas
For better or worse, the year ahead brings a mix of reforms, political shifts and global milestones that will shape how urban sustainability agendas are governed and delivered.
From the structure and leadership of the United Nations to new spaces for ambitious fossil fuel transition diplomacy to the coming IPCC Special Report on Climate Change and Cities to an unprecedented partnership in the delivery of the climate COP, the urban sustainability agenda has never faced more complexity.
There is no more business as usual in this space, which can surely be an opportunity for new momentum and solutions – but the threat to the stability of multilateral cooperation and our global sustainability community remains.
Here’s what local and regional governments should be on the lookout for this year.
# 1: UN80 reforms and new UN leadership make 2026 a reset year for sustainability
The Secretary-General of the United Nations António Guterres launched the UN80 Initiative to make the UN system more agile, integrated and fit for today’s overlapping crises, building on the outcomes of the Summit of the Future in 2024 and 80th anniversary of the UN in 2025. While the UN serves on 3 pillars peace, sustainable development, human rights, among the 30 work packages, only one focuses on the environment, which explores synergies between the mandates of the UN Environment Programme and UN Climate Change Secretariat.
The LGMA Position for the climate COP30 in Belem has already foreseen the relevance and importance of this process and called for connecting the COP30 outcomes to the UN80 reforms, for a new era for multilevel cooperation in the global climate and sustainability agenda. Meanwhile, throughout 2026, the UN General Assembly will elect a new UN Secretary General who must be supported by all five permanent members of the UN Security Council with veto power and with high expectations for a female leader to take this job for the first time.
The UN80 reforms and new UN leadership could inject fresh momentum into global sustainability governance, taking the baton beyond 2030. However, both of the processes come at a time when multilateralism is under serious attack.
# 2: The Rio Conventions “super year” opens a window for climate-land-nature synergies
Together with Agenda 21, the three Rio Conventions on climate change (UNFCCC), biodiversity (CBD) and land (UNCCD) are critical processes as the legacies of the 1992 Earth Summit. After 30 years, there is a growing call for synergy and coherence among those Conventions, especially as a means to secure the environmental integrity and faster implementation of sustainable development goals. ICLEI conducted the first annual review at the Daring Cities Forum in 2025 underlining the importance of elevating multilevel action and urbanization in all three processes .
The “super year” starts with UNCCD COP17 in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, on 17-28 August. Building on the success of the Mayors Forum at COP16 in Riyadh in 2024, local and regional governments will continue to highlight the importance of urban-rural linkage, migration, food, culture, nature conservation and water management in addressing desertification, land degradation and drought.
Attention then shifts to CBD COP17, held from 19-30 October in Yerevan, Armenia, where countries will deliver the first global stocktake of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, through CitiesWithNature and RegionsWithNature as official CBD reporting platforms and the 9th Summit for Subnational Governments and Cities as ICLEIs highlights.
Just nine days later, UNFCCC COP31 opens in Antalya, Türkiye, running from 10-21 November. The Summit will be held under a new and unprecedented governance model, with Türkiye hosting and holding the Presidency and the Action Agenda, meanwhile, Australia presiding the negotiations and mobilizing the youth champion and elevating the priorities of Pacific nations through pre-COP31.
The Türkiye-Australia COP31 model adds a level of complexity for UN climate negotiations and diplomacy at a time when difficult discussions expected to loom on fossil fuel transitioning, adaptation indicators, adequacy of climate finance and building the just transition mechanism.
# 3: A growing coalition takes the fossil fuel fight outside the climate COP
COP28 in Dubai put “transitioning away from fossil fuels” on the agenda, but COP29 in Baku and COP30 in Belém failed to deliver concrete outcomes, despite Brazil’s push for a widely backed roadmap.
Colombia and the Netherlands are leading a new push by co-hosting the first International Conference on the Just Transition Away from Fossil Fuels, on 28-29 April in Santa Marta, Colombia. Building on the Belém Declaration on the Just Transition Away from Fossil Fuels, supported by more than 80 countries, the conference signals growing momentum beyond the slow-moving COP process. This shift is echoed by the expanding Fossil Fuel Treaty Initiative, backed by 18 countries, 140 cities and subnational governments, the WHO, the European Parliament, and more than 4,000 civil society organizations.
# 4: Sustainable urbanization gets a reality check for as the New Urban Agenda turns ten
Adopted a decade ago at Habitat III, the New Urban Agenda put cities at the heart of sustainable development, offering a framework to deliver the urban dimensions of all Sustainable Development Goals. Now, the spotlight turns to assess its implementation. On 16-17 July, leaders will convene in New York City for the UN General Assembly’s High-Level Meeting, marking the Agenda’s midterm review, scheduled just before the 2026 High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (6-15 July).
Momentum will build in the lead-up at UN-Habitat’s World Urban Forum 13 (WUF13), taking place on 17-22 May in Baku, Azerbaijan. The forum will enable governments, partners and stakeholders to align priorities and accelerate action.
These milestones will assess how deeply the New Urban Agenda has been integrated into policies, programs and investments,including the new UNhabitat Strategy having more emphasis on sustainability, climate and nature; surface good practices and gaps and set the pace for delivering its goals over the next decade.
# 5: One year to prepare for the consequential IPCC Special Report on Climate Change and Cities landing in 2027
In just 15 months, IPCC will release the landmark Special Report on Climate Change and Cities under its 7th Assessment Cycle. This report marks a series of firsts for the international scientific body: The first report to be focused on a “place-based scale,” the first to deal exclusively with cities and urban areas – a request that was born out of the advocacy of the urban community – and critically, the first to include practitioners – city staff – alongside researchers as primary authors.
While the IPCC’s prior Reports have provided science-backed conclusions concerning climate and sustainability, harnessing media and international attention, there have been cases where the UNFCCC did not take appropriate actions. In this seventh report cycle, the urban community has the opportunity to catalyze momentum and investment based on the report’s results. Additionally, 2026 is the year to lay the groundwork towards an outcome of a dedicated work programme on multilevel governance and urbanization for UNFCCC COP32 in 2027, described in the LGMA COP30 Position.
# 6: Elections in Colombia, Brazil and the US put climate multilateralism to the test
In Colombia, the continuity of the ambitious climate and fossil fuel transition agenda developed under former Bogota Mayor and the current President Gustavo Petro, who cannot run for re-election, will be tested with the first round of presidential elections on 31 May. In Brazil, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has repositioned the country as a climate leader as shown as COP30’s host. Whether that direction holds will depend on the two-round presidential election on 4 and 26 October, which will also include , where Lula currently leads but faces a politically polarized electorate.
Meanwhile, the United States heads to mid-term elections on 3 November, which will determine which party leads Congress. The results will shape how much room exists for climate action – or obstruction – and how far the current US foreign policy will continue its approach towards the UN and other international processes.
# 7: Power blocs under new presidencies could drive the global sustainability agenda (or not)
France’s G7 presidency unfolds under President Emmanuel Macron’s final year in office. While the rift between the Trans-Atlantic partners are expected to dominate the agenda of the G7 Leaders Summit in Evian on 14-16 June, cities and regions will be proudly celebrating the first-time recognition of the Urban7 as an official engagement mechanism of the G7, building on the success since its inception in 2022.
Meanwhile, the United States’ G20 presidency signals a sharper economic and geopolitical framing, with the G20 Leaders Summit on 14-15 December, Miami, US, already announced to exclude S. Africa that presided G20 in 2025. The US G20 Presidency will also overlap with the Football World Cup and 250th Anniversary in the US which may introduce additional moments for political debates. Meanwhile, the Urban20 Summit to be hosted in New York City, supported by Los Angeles will be an important moment for both domestic and global agenda in the US.
India takes the helm of the BRICS group, which will prioritize resilience, innovation, cooperation and sustainability. It offers space to carry forward initiatives on climate risk reduction, equitable approaches to artificial intelligence and scientific cooperation, particularly relevant for fast-growing economies of the Global South. Building on the endorsement of BRICS to Indian candidacy to host COP33 in 2028, 2026 Indian BRICS Presidency can be expected to be designed as one of the preparatory processes and complement the evolution of the urban and Mayoral agenda within BRICS over the past few years.
# 8: COP plenary halls alone won’t deliver the climate action the world needs. Cities, states, towns and regions will.
Cities and regions will continue to push for on the ground implementation, with year-round advocacy undertaken by the Local Governments and Municipal Authorities (LGMA) Constituency. ICLEI serves as the focal point organization for the LGMA, one of the nine official Constituencies within the UNFCCC. This role is a special one that demands deep partnership and collaboration from all networks involved. Momentum builds from UCLG’s Annual Retreat in Barcelona, Spain (23-27 February) to ICLEI’s Town Hall COP Initiative, which enters its second year, after engaging nearly 15,000 residents worldwide in community-led climate dialogues in 2025.
At the SB64 climate talks in Bonn (8-18 June), Daring Cities 2026 will push for stronger multilevel action, alongside the second Annual Review of Local and Subnational Action on the Rio Conventions and sessions on CHAMP, which this year sees new leadership with Brazil and Germany as co-chairs, supported by a new operational governance structure. June continues with the Innovate4Cities Conference in Nairobi, Kenya (21-24 June), strengthening the evidence base for urban climate action. The UCLG World Congress in Tangier, Morocco on 23-26 June will be an opportunity to advance the global dialogues of national, regional and thematic networks of local and regional governments. Meanwhile, the second Nature Positive Summit in Kumamoto, Japan (14-15 July) spotlights how local governments and the private sector can deliver on the Global Biodiversity Framework ahead of COP17.
# 9: Bonus track: Will the Global Plastic Treaty finally reach agreement?
Ending plastic pollution remains unfinished business. On 7 February, governments will meet in Geneva, Switzerland to appoint a new chair of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC) after talks stalled in 2025. With oil- and gas-dependent countries still resisting limits on plastic production, momentum remains fragile. Another round of negotiations is expected in August-September, leaving 2026 as a make-or-break year.
