The Regional Forum on Climate Change, hosted in Bangkok July 1^st – 3^rd, 2015, aimed to influence climate policy in the region and to provide inputs for ASEAN’s position in global negotiation especially for the upcoming COP 21 in Paris, France. Indonesia took advantage of this opportunity and Rizaldi Boer from CCROM-SEAP IPB led a very interesting session for Low Carbon Asia Research Network (LoCARNET) on formulating integrated policies between mitigation and adaptation.

Rizaldi opened the session by saying that, “The global emission rate needs to be reduced soon, otherwise we will be in a state where there is no turning back.” This means that there is an urgent need for climate change mitigation and adaptation actions.  

Elly Ratni from Blitar was one of the presenters in Rizaldi’s session. She stated that there are many local initiatives that exist especially in cities and regions, but these initiatives are limited by resources, especially funding. She confirmed that the city government needs endorsement and support from the national government through policies that will enable Bappeda or the Environmental agency to tap funding from local budgets and integrate climate change into city planning. Examples of this include spatial or development planning (5-15 year planning, depending on the type). She also mentioned that support from external organizations is very helpful, especially given the limited support from the national government.

She mentioned that Blitar has received support from the GIZ-PAKLIM program for mitigation and adaptation interventions, and from Mercy Corps Indonesia for climate change adaptation. Both programs have provided capacity building for local stakeholders, especially the local government, not only in the form of program implementation, but also with networking.

Elly further explained that support needed for local stakeholders includes:

1. Financial resources
2. Capacity building for human resources: project planning and implementation, proposal development, development of vulnerability and risk assessments (how to create and use them as a reference to the policy planning), development of a resilience strategy, and how to advocate for funding to national and international donors. 
3. How to engage with private sector partners.  What interests them?

Messages for COP 21:

1. Mitigation is important, but there is an urgent need to also focus on adaptation. People living in countries like Indonesia experience the worst impacts of climate change and they will need support to be adaptive.
2. We need to start thinking in a systemic and integrated way. We cannot separate mitigation and adaptation any longer. These two efforts need to be integrated into one resilience strategy.
3. Climate change funding needs to reflect this integrated resilience strategy that includes both mitigation and adaptation actions.
4. Funding needs to be accessible not only for the national government, but also for local stakeholders, including local governments. 

Following Rizaldi's conclusion, we understand that to work on urban climate change, multi-stakeholders need to be involved. Climate change is not a single group’s issue, it is an issue for everyone that lives in cities. Lastly, urban development needs to shift its focus from being only infrastructure-oriented to green investment, which also focuses on social-economic sectors and includes a focus on poor and vulnerable people.