Conference Insights: Europe’s Territorial Resilience and Risk Management at a Turning Point

Resilience by Design: Scaling Regional and Local Solutions  

European territories are at a turning point, where extreme weather events call for resilience and climate adaptation by design. On May 6th 2025, at the recent high-level conference, “Europe’s Territorial Resilience and Risk Management at a Turning Point,” co-organised by FEDARENE, REGILIENCE+, CIDOB, and Eurocities, leaders and experts gathered at the Committee of Regions in Brussels to address gaps and pathways for adaptation. 

Resilience requires multilevel connection and coherence 

We are currently at an important policy window. With the new European Integrated Framework on Climate Resilience in play, the decisions made today will determine our future. Benedetta Brighenti (Director of AESS Modena) opened the event by identifying a persistent hurdle: a lack of knowledge about what works and how to replicate it. As authorities close to the ground still face fragmented support and difficulties accessing the tools and guidance necessary for adaptation, we must create a direct connection from the top to the ground, empowering and equipping the civil society and Regional and Local Authorities (RLAs) who are on the front lines every day in order for resilience ambitions to succeed.  

Underscoring and directing the efforts for adaptation, Elina Bardram (Director, DG CLIMA) reflected on the “battle of narratives” that the world is currently facing. Climate risk cannot be treated as a secondary issue, it must be a core priority for security and prosperity, otherwise “if we don’t do resilience by design, we will be looking at disaster by default”. Therefore, building resilience must not be seen as a cost, but as an investment, where the return, depending on where you are, can be 1 to 4, 1 to 7, or even 1 to ten.  

But how do we turn these high-level investments into local reality? Elodie Bossio (FEDARENE) provided the bridge. She noted that while energy and climate agencies are the “backbone of the transition,” they need a specific type of support. She argued that data and inspiration are only useful if they are “digestible”. This is precisely why REGILIENCE+ was created: to take leading examples of resilience and adaptation and transform them to audiences, making them accessible and comprehensible to those who need to act now.  

Formatting “Resilience by Design” 

Moving beyond high-level strategy requires a fundamental shift in how we structure local action. MEP Annalisa Corrado highlighted a critical “structural imbalance” in the current approach: we continue to spend far more after disasters occur than on preventing them. She noted that in Italy, for instance, only about 1% of the recovery and resilience plan was allocated to hydrogeological risk prevention. Ricardo Martinez (CIDOB), data-backend the mutual understanding, based on a study led by CIDOB, in which they identified the following barriers:   

• The Planning-Investment Gap: While 89% of surveyed cities have nature-based solution targets, only 11% have a dedicated budget to implement them.  

• Staffing Shortages: 19% of cities report having no dedicated staff for climate resilience.  

• Policy Translation: 67% of climate plans mention risks to vulnerable groups, but only 44% translate these into concrete adaptation measures. 

To correct this, Corrado argues we must move toward being resilient by design, which means planning based on future climate scenarios rather than past conditions. 

Following on how to overcome these challenges and streamline the efforts, Thomas Koetz (Climate-KIC) observed that scaling solutions cannot be about isolated projects, it requires a “common methodology” and a “community of practice” that allows regions to design systemic portfolios instead of single interventions. This transition to a “resilience journey” is often hindered by a lack of financial literacy and capacity within regional and local authorities, a gap that must be bridged to mobilise the private sector. 

This was further analysed by Miljenko Sedlar (REGEA), who underlined a systemic disconnect between ambition and fiscal reality. Sedlar noted that we must “learn how to speak the language” of local governors, which means integrating climate resilience into fiscal systems and spatial planning. Without this mainstreaming, adaptation remains a secondary pillar rather than a core driver of policy. 

Mayor Matteo Lepore of Bologna reinforced this by arguing that every euro spent on traditional infrastructure today must be “resilience-proofed” to avoid future financial liabilities. He insisted that “we need climate financial officers in our municipalities just as much as we need urban planners” to create bankable investment portfolios that attract private capital. 

For André Sobczak (Eurocities), while climate action is the top priority for European mayors, the reality is that “cities are struggling and need some more help” to move from planning to action. This sentiment was echoed by MEP Cesar Luena, who stated that “adaptation must be a political obligation” embedded in all public policies, from security to social justice. Luena stressed that nature-based solutions are not a luxury but “our first line of defense“. 

Acting as a team will define the results of this Final Match    

The ultimate success of European resilience depends on our ability to move beyond silos and work as a coordinated unit. Benedetta Brighenti concluded the event with a powerful metaphor: climate resilience is a high-stakes football match where the RLAs are on the front line, the European Commission is the goalkeeper protecting the team, and our greatest opponent is Time. 

“Please think to the match, not to the individual. This is the most important key because with this kind of team, not only the goal is the most important thing, but also the human experience that together we can do in this path”. 

REGILIENCE+ is dedicated to this match. By collecting 150 adaptation solutions and presenting them in actionable and different formats, we are making the complex digestible. We are addressing the gap from the top to the ground, ensuring that proven solutions don’t just stay in reports, but are scaled across every region in Europe 

Explore our adaptation stories and solutions at regilience.eu.