On April 7, 2025, the REGILIENCE project held its 7th Open Training Session (OTS) focused on the theme of Just Resilience, addressing the urgent need for fair and inclusive approaches to climate adaptation across Europe.
As climate change continues to intensify extreme weather events across the continent, it disproportionately impacts the most vulnerable populations — including children, the elderly, people with chronic health conditions, women, and low-income communities. These groups often face higher exposure and fewer resources to cope, deepening pre-existing inequalities.
The session emphasized that adaptation strategies must go beyond technical fixes to address the social dimensions of climate risk. Ensuring fairness throughout planning, implementation, and evaluation processes is key to empowering affected communities and avoiding maladaptation. Speakers highlighted how justice — distributive, procedural, and recognitional — must guide actions at every level of governance.
This perspective aligns with the EU’s growing commitment to climate justice, reflected in its Adaptation Strategy and the 2024 European Climate Risk Assessment (EUCRA). While important progress has been made in identifying where risks fall, more remains to be done to ensure inclusive participation and recognition of all social groups in shaping climate responses.
The session brought together a range of experts and local actors to explore how just resilience can be implemented in practice. The agenda featured diverse case studies and research insights, including:
Nina Pirttioja (SYKE), who presented on future socio-economic scenarios for improved risk analysis and adaptation planning.
Marco Morabito (National Research Council – Institute of BioEconomy), who shared lessons from the Worklimate 2.0 project on occupational heat stress in Italy.
Zsófia Anna Ghira (University of Padova / CoolCo’s), who introduced CoolCo’s urban strategies to support heat adaptation for vulnerable populations.
Blai Martí Plademunt (Barcelona City Council), who presented the innovative “Transforming Playgrounds” initiative, where gender and climate adaptation intersect.
The session concluded with a Q&A and open discussion, encouraging knowledge exchange and reflection on how to translate principles of justice into concrete adaptation actions at the local and regional level.
By fostering this type of dialogue and capacity-building, REGILIENCE continues to support the development of inclusive and equitable climate resilience throughout Europe.
You can download the following presentations:
- REGILIENCE Presentation
- Nina Pirttioja (SYKE) – Characterising future socio-economic changes for enhancing climate change risk analysis and just adaptation planning
- Marco Morabito (National Research Council – Institute of BioEconomy) – Occupational heat stress, adaptation strategies, and prevention polices in Italy: insights from the Worklimate 2.0 Project
- Zsófia Anna Ghira (University of Padova / CoolCo’s) – Ready for the next heatwave? CoolCo’s urban transformation to foster heat adaptation among vulnerable populations
- Blai Martí Plademunt (Barcelona City Council) – Transforming Playgrounds. Where climate and gender meet
On this page, you can see the Open Training Sessions (OTS) available for all interested parties, that will take place between March 2023 and 2025. The sessions are organised in a series of ten online events divided into two cycles.
