At UNFCCC COP27 in Sharm- El-Sheikh (Egypt), NBS Task Force 6 of EU Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Projects was chaired by Ingrid Andersson, IKED/URBiNAT, and Maria Carmen Garcia Mateo, MCG R&I/GO GREEN ROUTES. The panellists included Serge Nakouzi, FAO, Nico Tellie, TUDelft, and Marc Watum, Vision 2030 participating onsite. The panel was joined by Sean Bradley, Niko Frantzeskaki and Israa Mahmoud online. 

The session pulled together diverse experiences and perspectives, drawing on EU funded research and innovation as well as cases from around the world on how to integrate and mainstream co-creation in strategic planning and urban regeneration.

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In focus was the question how to realise co-creation of nature-based solutions, and its high importance in combating climate change. A range of sectoral and city experiences were considered for drawing lessons how to integrate and mainstream co-creation in strategic planning and urban regeneration. The representative from FAO, Serge Nakouzi addressed how Nature Based Solutions play a crucial role among collaborative community practices in agriculture around the world. Further Nico Tille described solutions in water management has been subject to experimentation in the Netherlands and how co-creation can overcome scepticism and fear when implementing novel solutions. Examples from Africa were presented by Marc Watum for which co-creation plays a crucial role in order to instil commitment and ownership. The online participants also added additional information which also stressed the need of training and capacity building in the practices of co-creation. The session was highly interactive, and the audience put forward a number of questions and remarks which were addressed by the panellists. At the end of the session the two moderators summarised by concluding that co-creation activities when arranged fruitfully have a great potential to give seed to bottom-up initiatives and inclusive communities.