The G20 summit in 2022, hosted in Indonesia, brought together leaders from the world’s major economies to discuss and address global challenges. As part of the official engagement groups of the G20, the Urban-20 (U-20) focused on enhancing the G20 agenda by investigating the contributions of cities to global recovery efforts.

Citieslab, in collaboration with the Indonesian Association of Urban and Regional Planning (IAP) and the West Java Province Government, served as a co-chair of U-20. They organized a seminar, “Empowering the Role of Urban-Rural Linkage Toward Integrated Action on Localization of SDGs and Climate Goals at City Region”. The seminar focused on the crucial theme of “Exchanging Research Experience and Knowledge on Urban-Rural Linkage".

In this session, Martin Voss emphasized that infrastructure investment is a critical driver of climate resilience, with development banks playing a key role in shaping sustainable and inclusive infrastructure systems, particularly in developing countries. He highlighted that future infrastructure investments, especially in energy, water, transport, and urban sectors must prioritize vulnerable populations and resilience principles to ensure societies can better withstand climate and global shocks.