Launch event - Housing justice at COP30: Civil Society voices in the climate space

2 September 2026

Housing Justice at COP30

As preparations for COP31 gear up, this event reflected on ongoing housing justice efforts to deliver global climate goals.

Date: Monday, September 28th, 2026

Time: 13:00-14:30 BST

Format: Online panel with interactive discussion 

The housing sector is increasingly integrated into international climate debates, but how and by whom housing is framed in climate arenas will dictate the kind of policies that arise from this intersection. At COP30 last year, housing justice advocates stressed that centring housing in climate debates requires a strong rights-based, community-led, and justice-framed agenda to be truly transformative.

This event reflected on the main messages from the Hub for Housing Justice publication, “Housing Justice at COP30: Civil society voices in the climate space.” It brought together different policy and advocacy actors working at the intersection of housing and climate justice to reflect on the ways in which housing justice can help ensure climate action addresses rather than exacerbates inequalities, and how climate spaces such as COP31 offer opportunities to align rights-based approaches in housing and climate.

Drawing on civil society statements from COP30 in Belém, the publication argues that linking housing and climate justice requires a systemic approach to structural inequality, recognition of the political and economic conditions shaping both crises, and support for locally led, bottom-up interventions — from participatory slum upgrading to community-driven retrofit efforts.

The event featured an online panel, and an interactive discussion, including:

  • Introduction of the publication Alexandre Apsan Frediani (IIED, UK) 
  • Keynote remarks by Executive Director of UN-Habitat Anacláudia Rossbach
  • Dialogue with contributors of the publication, including Dulari Parmar (YUVA, India), Joe Muturi (SDI, Kenya), Rodrigo Faria G. Iacovini (Pólis, Brazil), Yara Abdelkhalek (Public Works, Lebanon) and Irene Escorihuela Blasco (Observatori DESCA, Spain). 
  • Reflections and implications for housing and climate advocacy efforts by Lina Yassin (IIED, UK) alongside Jacqueline Wingens and Clara-Luisa Weichelt (Misereor, Germany).

This event was hosted by the Hub for Housing Justice, in cooperation with IIED, UN-Habitat and Misereor.

Watch the recording:

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