EURESFO: connecting cities for a resilient future
The 10th European Urban Resilience Forum will take place on 18-20 October in Cascais, Portugal. Register NOW to save your spot!
All those seeking to shape a climate-resilient future for our cities and regions are cordially invited to attend the 10th anniversary edition of the European Urban Resilience Forum (EURESFO).
Since 2013, EURESFO has been 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. The event is a European initiative driven by ICLEI Local Governments for Sustainability and the European Environment Agency (EEA), and will now be co-organised with the City of Cascais for the 2023 edition. Previous partners, such as the Resilient Cities Network and the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction are back to support the programme development as well.
For 2023, EURESFO, with its “PowerPoint free” promise, will keep its informative, open and interactive character, but will have some special surprises in store to celebrate its 10th anniversary alongside its participants. To name a couple - participants will have the opportunity to choose between 5 studv visits at key resilience locations across Cascais. Additionally, a NEW Resilience Investment Forum organized by UNDRR and the Making Cities Resilient 2030 initiative.
Target Audience: Resilience-makers, Resilience innovators, Resilience providers, and Resilience supporters.
The 10th anniversary edition
In the environment of an accelerated transformation, where the post-pandemic recovery is challenged by an unstable conflict situation in Ukraine and the unprecedented scale and frequency of climate change impacts, the European Urban Resilience Forum aims to provide the space and time to discuss a shared vision to implement a European resilient transformation.
On the one hand, by looking back at the path that brought cities and regions together for the last 10 years of resilience fora, participants will be able to evaluate their performance and highlight challenges, missed opportunities as well as good practices. On the other hand, building on the EURESFO experience, they will discuss key opportunities to act better and quicker in the upcoming future.
Based on a reflection on the capacities built over the past decade, the 10th anniversary will then seek to answer the overarching question:
What is needed to help local and regional governments address resilience challenges towards 2030 and beyond?
Today, societies experience the increasing impacts of a changing climate multiplied by other crisis, which often have similar root causes. The Forum aims to reflect on the sufficiency and suitability of capacities built over the past decade, that must be exploited to address current and future resilience challenges toward 2030 and beyond.
#EURESFO23 will do this by:
1. Evaluating the resilience trends and policies impacts on European cities and regions
2. Identifying best practices in governance, finance, nature-based solutions and innovation for climate adaptation
3. Identifying built capacities but also missed opportunities and challenges, adaptation gaps and needs throughout Europe
In this critical historic moment, building on the reflections on 10 years of resilience work, the Forum will also serve to discuss the way forward in building European resilience.
#EURESFO23 will do this by:
1. Raising awareness of available opportunities for cities and regions to fund their adaptation projects and resilience objectives
2. Discussing and challenging governance and finance models for resilience and climate adaptation in a multi-hazard context
3. Breaking silos-thinking and acting and challenging the current modus operandi in data collecting and sharing and in innovation
4. Discussing the impact of (mainly) green and blue but also grey solutions to increase local, regional and European resilience and their potential for upscaling and replication
The 2023 programme will be developed along 3 main thematic streams:
- The governance of the new crises: managing and funding resilience in Europe
- Challenging knowledge and innovation: accelerating a resilient and just transformation
- Mainstreaming solutions for a just transformative pathway: an integrated approach to resilience
The governance of the new crises: managing and funding resilience in Europe
The sessions under this topic aim to look into multi-level structures and opportunities for managing and funding adaptation projects and action. Reflecting on a changed climate and new extreme events over the past 10 years, speakers will discuss innovative governance models and funding schemes to deal with multi-hazard scenarios and more frequent climate extremes and overlapping crises.
Guiding question: How can a European Partnership on resilience be consolidated to coordinate governance and funding approaches and effectively support cities and regions in their resilience journey towards 2030 and beyond?
Challenging knowledge and innovation: accelerating a resilient and just transformation
Building on challenges and adaptation gaps, this topic seeks reflections on available resilience services, platforms and information and standardisation processes, exploring solutions for mainstreaming their improved use. At the same time, sessions will identify key developments needed and opportunities to accelerate climate adaptation and resilience. This theme will offer the opportunity to discuss the accessibility of data, information, technologies, and innovations to all stakeholders.
Guiding question: How can innovations in resilience services, information, data and digitalisation developed over the past decade effectively support cities and regions in their resilience journey towards 2030 and beyond?
Mainstreaming solutions for a just transformative pathway: an integrated approach to resilience
The sessions under this topic will focus on concrete solutions that in the last 10 years of discussions, proved to increase resilience and sustainably make cities adapt to the changing climate. Looking particularly at how Nature-based Solutions and green-blue infrastructure have been mainstreamed in planning and action, speakers will assess the performance of tested solutions and the need to accelerate and increase their impact at a larger scale. Reflecting on the transformational aspect of resilience, these sessions will discuss the role of participation in upscaling solutions.
Guiding question: What integrated solutions developed and tested over the past decade can effectively support cities and regions in their resilience journey towards 2030 and beyond?
