Category: News

Save the date and join REGILIENCE, ARSINOE, Climate Impetus and TransformAr at the 9th European Urban Resilience Forum!

Local and regional representatives set to come together and take next steps in building a climate resilient future at EURESFO22.

For almost a decade, the European Urban Resilience Forum (EURESFO) has served as an exchange platform for city representatives, experts and stakeholders from the local and regional stage to reflect and strategise on adapting to climate change, building urban resilience, and managing disasters. The unique event has provided an exceptional platform for governments from across Europe and abroad to explore future opportunities for action and collaboration.

EURESFO is a European initiative driven by ICLEI Local Governments for Sustainability and the European Environment Agency (EEA), and this year will be co-organised by the City of Athens (Greece). All local and regional governments seeking to shape a climate-resilient future are once again invited to take part in the discussion and meet-up in Athens on 14 and 15 September (Venue: Athens Technopolis). Registration is now open.

Some topics that will be highlighted in the programme are: coastal resilience and tackling heat waves and wildfires; mainstreaming climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction; the importance of data availability and accessibility; financing for resilient cities, nature-based solutions for equitable development, regional pathways towards resilience transformation, and many more!

This year’s event will also offer a masterclass on how to deal with urban heat, from inception to planning to monitoring, as well as host a Marketplace with various exhibitors, short project pitches, climate resilience assessments, and decision support tools.

About EURESFO22 taking place in the City of Athens, Vasileios Latinos, Urban Resilience and Climate Adaptation Coordinator at ICLEI Europe, says, “Climate change is one of the biggest challenges of our times and moving the event to a region that suffers severely from the effects of climate change seemed somewhat necessary! Since the EURESFO last convened in 2021, the world has experienced extreme climate events and disasters, occurring simultaneously in various countries. Plus, we have had at least two more COVID-19 waves, and an ongoing war in Ukraine. This is the moment to take stock, address the issues cities are facing, and talk about solutions!”

The event will keep its informative, open and interactive character, maintaining its ‘PowerPoint free’ format. Participants are encouraged to share experiences and points of view on a variety of topics that will explore challenges in urban resilience planning and implementation.

For more information and to register, visit the EURESFO website. Follow the @Urb_Resilience Twitter account for the latest updates and programme announcements for #EURESFO22.

For media inquiries, please contact:

Jennifer Cote, EURESFO communications lead
ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability European Secretariat Email: jennifer.cote@iclei.org

Climate change and its effects on our health

We have all heard that climate change has a devastating effect on the intricate balance of nature. Climate change does not mean only rising temperatures. As per the United Nations, the Earth is an interconnected system and changes in one area will have lasting effects on other regions. Among other effects, climate change can be seen in intense droughts, water scarcity, severe fires, rising sea levels, flooding, melting polar ice, catastrophic storms and declining biodiversity.

The World Health Organization (WHO) believes that the climate crisis threatens to undo the last fifty years of progress in development, global health and poverty reduction, and is only deepening the segregation between people of different economic backgrounds. The people with lower income, apart from usually living in more vulnerable regions, are also largely uninsured, therefore the effects of climate change are pushing them even closer to poverty. This means that the effects of climate change are mostly felt by the world’s most vulnerable and at risk populations.

The effects of climate change can have an influence on our everyday life – on our health, housing, ability to grow food, travel etc. WHO calls climate change the biggest health threat for humanity and states that climate change affects the social and environmental determinants of health – clean air, safe drinking water, sufficient food and secure shelter.

In light of these effects, almost 200 Parties around the world have adopted the Paris Agreement. The Paris Agreement is a legally-binding treaty, with the goal of the treaty being the limitation of global warming below 2, preferably to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has then been invited to create a Special Report on the impacts of global warming of 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels and related global greenhouse gas emissions pathways. According to its latest report, if we continue at this rate, the threshold of 1.5°C will be reached by 2040. It’s important to note that some changes to global warming are inevitable, yet even the 1.5°C threshold is not considered safe.

Climate change can impact health in a variety of ways – it can lead to death or injury, caused by extreme weather events, such as extreme heat, flooding or storms. It can also lead to heat-related illnesses (such as heat exhaustion and heat stroke and even cardiovascular failure), respiratory illnesses such as asthma, water-borne diseases such as cholera, salmonella and gastrointestinal illnesses among others. Climate change can also increase zoonoses, which are diseases which can be transmitted from animals to humans. Extreme weather events can also lead to vector-borne diseases, malnutrition and food-borne diseases. It can also increase the cases of non-communicable diseases and have a negative effect on mental health.

Researchers report that 5 million deaths a year are linked to climate change. The findings are based on data from 2000 to 2019. By region, annual deaths related to abnormal temperatures were: Asia, 2.6 million; Africa, 1.2 million; China, 1.04 million; Europe, 835,000; United States, 173,600; South America, 141,000; India, 74,000; United Kingdom, 52,000, and Australia, 16,500. (Source: U.S. News)

In addition to this the World Health Organization has also reported that between 2030 and 2050, 250 000 additional deaths per year are to be expected due to the effects of climate change, cause by health conditions such as malnutrition, malaria, diarrhea and heat stress.

In their most recent report, the IPCC highlights some climate adaptation measures, undertaken in other sectors that have a positive effect on the health and wellbeing of people:

Adaptive urban design that provides greater access to green and natural spaces that promotes biodiversity, improves air quality, and moderates the hydrological cycle; it also helps reduce health risks associated with heat stress and respiratory illnesses, and mitigates mental health challenges associated with congested urban living.
Turning to vehicles using renewable energy mitigates Green House Gas emissions, improves air quality and lowers risks of respiratory illnesses.
Policies and designs that facilitate active urban transport (walking and bicycling) will reduce emissions, improve air quality, and generate physical and mental health benefits for residents.
Improved building and urban design that foster energy efficiency improve indoor air quality, reduce risks of heat stress and respiratory illness.
Food systems that emphasize healthy, plant-centered diets reduce emissions in the agricultural sector while helping in the fight against malnutrition.

There are many great examples of cities, adapting their infrastructure to accommodate the effects of climate change, which end up having beneficial effects to citizen’s health and wellbeing. Such examples include Vienna, famous for its visionary floodplain, which is a also used as a hotspot for recreation, sunbathing and socializing. The city’s Wiener Linien, Vienna’s public transport operator has also converted tram and metro stations into greenhouses, which apart from promoting biodiversity, also allow commuters to hide from the heat into their shadow during the hot summer months. The city also has over 1350 drinking fountains, offering free refreshment to its citizens and tourists, located in various places such as parks, markets and playgrounds.

Another example is Aubervilliers, a region on the outskirts of Paris, which has created an urban forest out of a former car park. Trees are known for creating shade and unlike the air conditioning we are so used to turning to when we hear that the temperatures will be soaring, trees and vegetation lower surface and air temperatures by providing shade and through evapotranspiration (U.S. Environmental protection agency).

That’s why REGILIENCE is so important. This European Project aims to develop Regional Pathways to Climate Resilience and will share the most promising cross-sectoral adaptation solutions, supporting cities and regions across Europe to become more resilient to climate change. During its lifetime will facilitate the identification and upscaling of the most promising resilience solutions: supporting their replication in 10 vulnerable and low-capacity regions in Europe.

Climate adaptation and resilience on the local and regional level – Croatian perspective

On the 30^th of June 2022, the REGILIENCE team has brought together 26 key Croatian stakeholders, including representatives of the local and regional governments, national utility companies and ministries, to discuss climate change adaptation and resilience. The room was unanimous on several points including that we are witnesses to the effects of climate change on a daily basis and that if we wait with adaptation measures until disasters strike it will be too late. The time to act is now, and the key actors in this process are the local and regional governments and their stakeholders and communities. The impacts of climate change will be felt on all levels and will require the cooperation and coordination both vertically (across different levels of governance) and horizontally (across different sectors), however the implementation of the necessary actions will fall on the shoulders of our municipalities, cities and regions. We must all support them in this process, the climate emergency we are facing can’t be solved with top-down measures alone.

On a positive note, climate change as well as climate change adaptation and resilience are slowly but surely becoming a relevant topic of conversation across Croatia. Considerations of adaptation to climate impacts are a mandatory section of new projects funded by public money and more and more funds are being made available to adaptation and resilience project and not only for climate change mitigation. We do have a long way ahead of us, but we are at least moving in the right direction.

The general conclusions of the workshop can be summarised as:

Climate change is happening, and we need to adapt to it now if we want to be resilient in the future.
Funding is available and we must use it. It is necessary to support both project development as well as prepared actions to act short and long term.
Climate change adaptation and resilience actions must be systemic and not just reactionary. We must prepare for and not just react to climate disasters.
It is vital to act in a coordinated manor, funding, plans and actions need to be aligned and harmonised horizontally and vertically to maximise the impact of the utilized resources.
We still need more capacity in terms of education and additional experts in key positions across the local, regional and national levels to achieve the targets we have set for ourselves.
Municipalities, cities and regions as well as their supporting institutions such as energy, climate and/or development agencies are key for achieving success.

The workshop has been organised in Zagreb, Croatia in the framework of the REGILIENCE project by REGEA and IEECP and supported by the REGILIENCE consortium.

The workshop has been held in Croatian with the following agenda:

REGILIENCE brings the resilience community together to debate National Adaptation Plans (NAP) and Strategies (NAS) in theory and practice

On the 28th of June, REGILIENCE organised a workshop titled “National Adaptation Plans and Strategies in the Theory and Practice – Role of the National and Regional Governments” to discussed how present and future EU policies drive the necessary changes on the ground as well as lessons learnt from the processes of the drafting, implementation, and monitoring of the National Adaptation Strategies from several EU Member States.

To kickstart the workshop Johannes Klumpers – Head of Secretariat for Climate Adaptation Mission at DG CLIMA – introduced the work done by the European Commission through the Mission on Adaptation to Climate Change, a new initiative bringing together efforts both financially and policy-wise to help regions and municipalities become climate-resilient.

After a thorough explanation of the European policy framework (see picture below), Mr. Klumpers moved on to describe the Mission on adaptation to climate change.

The mission specifically targets regions and cities, the main responsible actors of the many actions that need to be undertaken to reach climate neutrality. The mission has three main objectives on top of gathering a better understanding of climate risks:   

Equip all EU regions with necessary knowledge;
Help them develop their adaptation plan, aiming to support about 150 regions;  
Upscaling solutions to trigger transformation and develop enabling conditions aiming to support about 75 regions.

More concretely, the Mission will support the regions in two ways:

by encouraging them to participate in Horizon Europe (and other research programmes) which can be reached throught the Mission innovation platform, the first entry point to access guidance and funding.
by engaging them through the Mission Charter, thought to provide some support to regions which are not yet using (or do not have capacity to use) EU funds.

A practical example was offered by Tom Lamers, EU Affairs Adviser of the of the Green Metropolitan Region Arnhem-Nijmegen. Tom presented how the Climate Planning is structured in the Netherlands with a strong multi-level governance approach. The Green Metropolitan Region of Arnhem-Nijmegen is a region located in eastern Netherlands and is a cooperation of 18 municipalities, with an economic board representing the knowledge institutions. Its regional strategy has five focusing points: circularity, productivity, connectivity, green growth and leisure (climate adaptation is overarching in all five topics).

The main policy instrument at national level is the DELTA PROGRAMME (which was started as a response to the dramatic sea floods of 1953). A commission was installed to prevent such natural disasters in the future. Its work resulted in a world-known infrastructure preventing floods in the north shore, and in one long term strategy on flood risk management, freshwater supply and spatial adaptation. The programme is structured into decisions (6 years periods), which are themselves translated into plans, which are concrete measures for implementation. DELTA is not a top-down but a cooperation between the national government, the provinces, the water authority, municipalities and knowledge institutions and enterprises.

Spatial adaptation is a special sub-programme of DELTA. This is the context where the region sets up the planning measures for the built environment and rural areas (extreme heat, droughts, etc.). The sub-programme is also translated into a delta decision (2015) which includes plans and policies to make the Netherlands water resilient and climate proof by 2050. A DELTA plan on spatial adaptation was adopted in 2018 to set out goals ensuring compliance with the decision.

The DELTA programme is structured by 40 work regions in the Netherlands. These actors can identify vulnerabilities to weather extremes, act as pilots for stress tests, and set out ambitions and policies to take necessary measures. They also work together with other supra-regions. The 40 work regions are mostly based on a structure based on water basins and rivers. For example, the Arnhem-Nijmegen region has 7 work regions active (making it a very complex structure). One of the first work region is the one around the city of Nijmegen. This work region started working in 2016 and drafted its adaptation plan in 2019 and action plan in 2020. Some big projects are already implemented (e.g. island 4 km long and 200 m wide in the river).

In the Netherlands the adaptation strategy needs to be viewed as a whole – as an important interlink amongst all the levels. However, although multilevel governance seems to work quite well in the Netherlands, there are still some sectors which are difficult to engage (e.g. agriculture with the ban on pesticides).

Branka Pivčević Novak, Head of Service for general Climate protection policy, Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development of Croatia presented the national perspective. The national level has the role to create the right framework to allow changes on the ground, which is not always an easy task.

Croatia used a co-creation process for reaching a consensus for the national adaptation strategy: the role of the ministry was drafting the adaptation strategy based on the SEA process (2016-20) with the participation of scientists and experts from universities, media, civil servants, general public, etc. However, it is not always easy to reach a consensus when drafting complex documents which are meant to deal with issues where a lot of scepticism exists. In order to overcome this, the Croatian government involved experts from the meteorologic service, who elaborated scenarios able to show what could happen in the different areas of the country and sectors of the economy in the future if no action was taken. That data was used in workshops all over Croatia, this made people much more involved and interested. Unfortunately, due to economic constraints, this is not easily replicable. More and more work on the ground is done, and policy tools such as Environmental Impact Assessment are a good way to gather data and continue showing adverse effects of climate change.

Finally, Christian Kind, Head of Programme Adaptation at adelphi gave an overview on the “Monitoring and evaluation of the German climate change adaptation and resilience efforts”. Christian explained the German National Adaptation Process and showcased a detailed timeline of the National German Adaptation Strategy, first published in 2008 and being built upon ever since in a cyclic manner and with the help of the local level. In fact, municipal and regional levels are essential for adaptation however the design of plans saw a very limited active role for cities and regions. Needs are formulated and listened to, however only bit by bit. Barriers are the federal system (which has some advantages, but not in seeing the whole picture) and the fact that adaptation is competing with other important topics (e.g. poverty). It is very important for the national government to fund staff in municipalities in order to increase capacity (not for 1 or 2 years but permanently), funding investments (e.g. infrastructure), providing data (municipalities cannot do it by themselves + economies of scale) and supporting exchange and collaboration.

The workshop ended with the Panel discussion “Lessons learnt of the Climate change adaptation and resilience planning, implementation and monitoring process” moderated by Vasileios Latinos Coordinator of Sustainable Resources, Climate and Resilience at ICLEI Europe, where attendees were able to feed the discussion by asking their questions to the speakers.

It was concluded that there is more work to be done, but the geopolitical and economic situation is really rowing against us. The biggest effort should be on capacity building as we are still lagging as a society. Priorities are not there, actions that are planned are not efficient enough – what the EC is doing is good but we really need to invest in capacity building and stop seeing this as an expense but rather as a need.

You can view the full workshop recording below:

By the Autumn, REGILIENCE aims to organize an online workshop, including the 4 projects REGILIENCE, Arsinoe, Climate Impetus and TransformAr, aiming to discuss how the different missions interplay (mainly Mission on Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities and Mission on Adaptation to Climate Change) and work together.

REGILIENCE organizes a workshop on “Climate Adaptation – European Approach and Success Stories” as an event of the General Assembly of FEDARENE in León, Spain

On the 15th of June, REGILIENCE organized a workshop titled “Climate Adaptation – European Approach and Success Stories” as an event during the General Assembly of FEDARENE in León, Spain.

Regions and energy agencies from across Europe were invited to reflect on the implementation of climate adaptation and resilience measures and be inspired by best practices and experiences from their colleagues.

During the first part of the workshop, the REGILIENCE team introduced the mission on Climate Adaptation followed by an in-depth presentation by Johannes Klumpers, Head of Secretariat for Climate Adaptation Mission at DG CLIMA. He shed light on the Green Deal missions, addressing the EU Adaptation strategy and the objective of supporting at least 150 EU regions and communities towards climate resilience by 2030 as an initial step to achieve a climate resilient society by 2050.

Highlighting the focus on regions, the Mission aims to include all regions regardless of their past progress in climate adaptation actions and provide knowledge and support to facilitate the climate adaptation process. EU regulations require member states to provide national adaptation strategies (NAS) and plans (NAP) which can include further support for regional actions. The CLIMATE-ADAPT platform provides all current and past National adaptation strategy (NAS) and National adaptation plan (NAP) documents as well as a lot of helpful information.

Finally, Johannes Klumpers shared the fact that 248 applications have been received to become a signatory of the Mission Charter, whereas 118 signatories have been announced during the first mission to adaptation forum this June.

Gallery

The second part of the workshop focused on the presentation and discussion of successes and failures in resilience pathways. Some good practices and project examples of climate adaptation and resilience were highlighted:

The integration of climate and energy actions into the spatial plans of the city of Karlovac. Based on the city’s plans within the Covenant of Mayors Strategic Energy and Climate Action plans, REGEA supported the inclusion of energy and climate measures into the cities spatial plan. Together, they developed Croatia’s first green spatial plan with measures such as ban on the use of fossil fuels for heating, limitation of personal car use in certain areas or the requirement of car parks with green spaces and rainwater management. This process has empowered the City of Karlovac to take the first steps towards the implementation of an integrated and enforceable pathway towards both climate neutrality and resilience. This success already piqued interest in other Croatian cities which are following this process.
ClimaStory is a pedagogical support for collective reflection on climate change adaptation designed as a serious game. Based on a topographical map of a fictitious territory different stakeholders from a community play together to increase climate resilience. This raises awareness on the impact of climate change and illustrates the interconnections between different sectoral actions. The participants are able to make decisions regarding different sectors (Agriculture and forestry, Industry; Tourism, trade and crafts; Safety and health; Planning, management of resources and biodiversity; commerce, security, health, tourism) and try to find solutions together. For the moment, the game is only available in France but AURA EE aims to develop maps for each of the territories that want to participate and bring discussions that would help regions develop their Climate Adaptation pathways.
To contrast the negative effects that suppose artificially enclosing the land by dams in the Netherlands, the energy agency of Fryslân Province proposed and implemented the idea of creating small holes in dikes allowing irrigation and the natural flow of water and fish. This helped to restore the natural habitats of fish.
In lower Austria 23 dedicated Climate Managers are employed by the communities. To ensure that the climate adaptation is coordinated the Energy and Environment Agency of Lower Austria, eNu, employed 4 coordinators. They are supporting the local Climate Managers in their daily work and function as contact point. Additionally, the coordinators help with planning and implementing climate local measures with a better adaptation approach as well as being a first contact point for support.
Remarkable project is working on the development of a training material on climate plans with the aim to create a map with specific measures towards climate neutrality. The project includes several regions in Europe.

By the end of June, REGILIENCE will organize another virtual workshop on “National Adaptation Plans and Strategies in Theory and Practice – Role of the National and Regional Governments” aiming to assess how the EU and national institutions play an important role in the green transition at local and regional levels.

What is climate resilience and why it is so urgent to strengthen it? – Opinion article

Even if humans are able to halt the emission of greenhouse gases, our planet will continue heating up over the next decades. The last Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s alerts about even higher temperatures, rising seas, fiercer storms, more unpredictable rainfall, and more acidic oceans than what we have experienced in the past years. The world’s ecosystems and biodiversity, our food, energy, and health systems amongst others will change, and if we don’t want to go extinct, we have to adapt to those changes which we cannot yet stop. This is called “climate resilience”.

Where is climate resilience happening?

Some countries, cities and organisations have invested early in climate-resilient development, mitigating already now the impacts of climate change. For example, the Netherlands adopted in 2007 a “Room for the River” strategy, founded on the principles of water safety and spatial quality. The idea is to live with water instead of fighting it: the strategy gives water more space to spread out when floods occur, reducing damage and loss of life. The country moved dikes inland, widened rivers, raised bridges, dug flood channels, and added river catchment areas.

New parks, public infrastructure, and recreational spaces were also created. Now the Rhine River can safely carry 1,000 cubic meters of water per second more than it could before.

Some cities are also frontrunners in climate resilience building. Rotterdam is turning open spaces into multifunctional infrastructure for stormwater management, as in the Water Plaza Benthemplein. Residents and visitors can enjoy the square on dry days, and the square helps protect the neighbourhood from flooding during days of heavy rain.

Milan is increasingly focusing on urban heat. To build resilience, the city is engaging communities through the provision of tailored information on cool routes, cool spaces and locations where drinking water fountains can be found (see EXTREMA). While this is a soft communication measure, it shows how serious the City of Milan is in providing high-quality infrastructure that mitigates climate risk.

The city of Hamburg has adopted its Green Roof Strategy in 2014 with the first Green Roof Symposium. Its goal is to green at least 70 per cent of both new buildings and suitable flat or gently pitched roofs undergoing renovation. The Ministry for Environment, Climate, Energy, and Agriculture supports the project with three million euros in total until the end of 2024. The strategy is based on four pillars: promotion, dialogue, policy and research.

Green roofs and facades have different positive ecosystem services and support several Sustainable Development Goals. They improve environmental conditions by decreasing noise, reducing fine dust particle concentration, lowering surface temperatures, offering retention and evaporation, limiting drainage system congestion and minimising risk of flooding.

Last but not least, the Portuguese ReDuna project aims to restore the natural capacity of the city of Almada sand dune-beach ecosystem to respond to sea-level rise and storms.

Why shall regions take more action?

While there is plenty that cities can do, regional governments – including provinces, districts and departments – have to take much more action to fund and ensure resilience beyond the urban boundaries.

Regional governments hold the political and economic power to decide, plan and even implement how land is managed (e.g., agriculture and forestry, transport infrastructure decisions and water management). In particular, regions shall protect the most vulnerable people from suffering the effects of climate change.

To promote new regional climate adaptation knowledge, strategies and showcases, the European Commission has launched the EU Mission “Adaptation to Climate Change”. This Mission is supported by four projects – REGILIENCE, ARSINOE, IMPETUS and TransformAr – which develop such innovative action in more than 20 regions across the EU.

If you want to make your region more climate-resilient, contact us or subscribe to our newsletter.

You can download the full article here.

REGILIENCE and the Spanish Climate Change Office organized a workshop on “Climate-resilient pathways: barriers and opportunities”

On 8 June, REGILIENCE “traveled” to Spain for a workshop on “Climate-resilient pathways: barriers and opportunities”. Together with the Climate Change Office (Spanish Ministry for Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge) and six representatives from Spanish regions, several challenges and opportunities facing the implementation of climate-resilient action, including bottom-up approaches, were actively discussed.

All participants agreed that there is far insufficient citizen awareness about the need for climate adaptation and resilience action. Citizen surveys could provide a better understanding of perception and acceptance of adaptation measures, but they are not the norm, although in Catalonia’s bi-yearly survey climate change ranks as one of the top concerns. It was also mentioned that the interest in adaptation, mitigation and climate-resilience in general is growing among economic sector representatives; however, they shall demand rather sector-benefiting solutions without considering possible negative effects of (mal)adaptation on other sectors or geographic areas, e.g. by demanding more freshwater supply.

Several good practice examples of climate adaptation and resilience and lessons learned were highlighted:

A working group on impact and adaptation (Grupo de Trabajo de Impactos y Adaptación) was established by the Ministry for Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge (MITERD) and brings together national and regional actors and other stakeholders, facilitating exchanges on a regular basis and ensuring vertical exchange. It also addresses coordination for the engagement with the “EU Adaptation Mission” with those Spanish regions involved in the EU Mission on Adaptation.
The adoption of national/regional climate change related laws, as for example the 2017 Catalonian law requirement to include climate change as a component of Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) procedures, as consequent action of justice can halt the development of non-climate-resilient investments, e.g. in large infrastructural projects (as a coastal highway).
The Spanish Citizens Climate Assembly, which just recently published its final recommendations, is an interesting experience to replicate at the regional levels. It has actively addressed adaptation as well as mitigation.
Working with platforms such as the Covenant of Mayors (e.g. on the Balearic Islands) brings on board almost all municipalities, leading to the adoption of climate-energy plans, while fostering valuable exchanges between the regional and local levels.

During the meeting, the following constraints or problems in fostering cooperation for climate adaptation were mentioned:

Lack of horizontal cooperation at the regional level, with climate offices not being involved in the adaptation measures carried out under the scope of different departments.
Lack of vertical cooperation between the local, regional and national scales that prevent the setup of a governance structure to properly manage coastal areas under risk.

By the end of the month, REGILIENCE is organizing another virtual workshop on “National Adaptation Plans and Strategies in Theory and Practice – Role of the National and Regional Governments”. The objective of this workshop is to assess how the EU and national levels play a part in the success and failure of the green transition at local and regional levels.

Learn more and register at: https://regilience.eu/national-adaptation-plans/

National Adaptation Plans and Strategies in theory and practice – role of the national and regional governments

About

The objective of this workshop is to assess how the EU and national levels play a part in the success and failure of the green transition at local and regional levels.

More specifically, how do the EU policies (present and future) drive the necessary changes on the ground as well as what we can learn from the processes of the drafting, implementation and monitoring of the National Adaptation Strategies from several EU Member States.

We will explore similarities and differences in the overall approach and foster mutual learning from the exchange of ideas and experiences. The follow-up discussion will focus on the following aspects:

How have regional and local governance levels been involved in the planning process and the development of the NASs? Have regions, cities and municipalities been involved in the discussion, and/or have the local needs and potential been considered for the drafting of the targets and measures?
How successfully are the NASs being implemented and monitored? How are they being integrated into local and regional plans and strategies? Are they resulting in concrete budgets and actions for climate change adaptation and resilience in the regions, cities and municipalities? What is their relation with the Resilience and Recovery Plans (RRPs)?
If you had to do everything over, what would you repeat and what would you change the second time around?

Agenda

REGILIENCE team meets in Vienna for the first time

The REGILIENCE team, made up of IEECP, ICLEI Europe, Fedarene, F6S, REGEA, FC.ID, adelphi, Fresh Thoughts Consulting and R-Cities, held its first in-person meeting in Vienna on 18-20 May 2022.

Vienna was specifically selected to host this event due to the fact that climate adaptation is at the core of its climate policy and an inseparable part of its Climate Protection Programme (KliP), first created in 1999 and last updated in 2009. The goal of the programme was to make Vienna a model city and reduce CO₂ emissions. In 2022 the Smart Climate City Strategy Vienna was adopted to define climate mitigation and climate adaptation actions for Vienna becoming a climate resilient city until 2040. In the last decades climate change has deeply affected Vienna’s local climate, causing the local temperature to rise by more than 2 degrees in the last 40 years. This in itself has caused catastrophic events such as heavy rainfall, draughts, storms and high summer temperatures and is the reason why Vienna has launched the “Adapting to Climate Change” initiative in 2017.

As part of the trip, the REGILIENCE members had the unique opportunity to take a bike ride around the Danube. Vienna is a visionary when it comes to adaptation to urban flooding. The city has adopted a defense system during the 70’s and 80’s which can protect the city from flooding. The system allows for the sluice gates of the Danube to lift during a flood allowing the excess water, debris and tree branches to rush into a man-made side channel.

Vienna has also been artificially raised with the help of soil excavated from the channel’s river. Biking trails, beaches and meadows have been created for people to gather.
During these sunny days, it was impressive to see how the citizens take advantage of the floodplain as a meeting point for recreation, sunbathing and socializing, increasing their quality of life and wellbeing.

Another thing which our REGILIENCERS were extremely pleased to discover was that the Wiener Linien, Vienna’s public transport operator, has converted tram and metro stations into greenhouses. They have used climbing flowers to create a completely new ecosystem – all of this in the heart of the city! Apart from being beautiful and looking like an urban oasis, the greenery creates shadow and cools down the commuters. The plants are also a habitat for insects and bees, promoting the health of the ecosystem.

The trip was very fruitful and informative. The REGILIENCE partners had the opportunity to leave their footprint to climate resilience as well – the whole trip was under the frame of CO₂ reduction and sustainability. During the Management Board Meeting there was a strict no computers rule. Funnily enough, laptops and computers emit CO₂ and using them excessively or leaving them turned on overnight can in fact add to global warming.

Other things, which our environment friendly team did was to hold its meeting outside and thus, not use electricity, air conditioning and projectors. The team also cycled everywhere, consumed drinking water from fountains, therefore reducing their use of plastic. They also ate local vegan food, delivered by bike, and stayed in a hotel close to the meeting venue, reducing the commuting time and the need for transport.

Vienna has been a unique experience! In 2020 the city was ranked as the greenest metropolis and is occupying the leading positions in regards to:

Parks and green spaces;
Public transport – available everywhere around the city;
Recycling;
Renewable resources.

Join REGILIENCE, ARSINOE, Climate Impetus and TransformAR for the 9th European Urban Resilience Forum!

The four sister projects – REGILIENCE, ARSINOE, Climate Impetus and TransformAR will attend the flagship ICLEI Europe event, host to local and regional governments seeking to shape a climate-resilient future in Athens, Greece on 14 and 15 September 2022. The event will be held at the Athens Technopolis.

This year the European Urban Resilience Forum (EURESFO) will be organized by ICLEI Local Governments for Sustainability and the European Environment Agency (EEA), together with the help of REGILIENCE who will shape the programme assisting the core organizing Committee. Co-organiser will be the city of Athens.

“Southern and central European cities have faced extreme climate hazards over the last couple of years, such as the severe floods in Germany and the record-breaking heat waves and wildfires in Greece and Portugal! All these extreme events show that the need for preparedness against extreme hazards and for adaptation to the impacts of climate change is more relevant and crucial than ever.

The European Urban Resilience Forum 2022 is moving this year to Athens, Greece and will focus on a variety of topics – from the use of nature based solutions for disaster risk reduction to urban regeneration practices for healthy and prosperous communities and from social justice and gender inclusion to wildfire prevention and heat wave management! We look forward to welcoming participants in the Greek capital this September for another event, where cities talk to cities, while regions and communities are put in the spotlight and start preparing for the EU Adaptation Mission activities!”, says Vasileios Latinos, Urban Resilience and Adaptation Coordinator at ICLEI Europe and REGILIENCE Work Package leader.

The goal of the event is to serve as a unique exchange platform for city representatives, experts and stakeholders from local and regional institutions to discuss strategies, initiatives and actions for adapting to climate change, managing disasters and building urban resilience.

Some of the event’s highlights will be coastal resilience, tackling heat waves and wildfires, disaster risk reduction for safer and healthier communities, regional pathways towards resilience transformation, nature-based solutions for equitable development and many more!

Agenda coming soon, stay tuned!