Main Organisers
ICLEI - Local Governments for Sustainability is a global network of more than 1,750 local and regional governments committed to sustainable urban development. Active in 100+ countries, we influence sustainability policy and drive local action for low emission, nature-based, equitable, resilient and circular development. Our Members and team of experts work together through peer exchange, partnerships and capacity building to create systemic change for urban sustainability.
The European Environment Agency (EEA) provides sound, independent information on the environment for those involved in developing, adopting, implementing and evaluating environmental policy, and the general public. In close collaboration with the European Environmental Information and Observation Network (Eionet) and its 33 member countries, the EEA gathers data and produces assessments on a wide range of topics related to the environment. The EEA supports urban adaptation through participation in the European Urban Resilience Forum, periodical publication of reports and by continuous development of local-level content on the Climate-ADAPT portal, including the Urban Adaptation Support Tool and Urban Adaptation Map Viewer.
Co-organisers
Cascais is a coastal town located in the outskirts of the Lisbon Metropolitan Region with over 215.000 which live on what is called as the “Portuguese riviera” do to the unique 30 km long coastline with Atlantic beaches experienced by tourists and surfers from around the world. Cascais is actively engaged in local sustainable development policies and climate action and is regarded as a national front running city on both decarbonization and resilient policies. These policies have been implemented with a significant level of success and has helped to improve the quality of life of both residents and visitors. A clear indication that a green economy can lead to successful local development.
REGREEN will substantially improve the evidence and tools for supporting co-creation of nature-based solutions (NBS) in urban settings, implementation of decision support systems for planning and governance, and development of business models for realising spatially relevant NBS, that provide multiple ecosystem services and wellbeing. REGREEN works through Urban Living Labs (ULLs) as the central elements of the project, where co-creation of knowledge involves local citizens, schools, businesses, organisations and public administrations enabling new forms of urban innovation.
The goals and vision of the REGILIENCE project are aligned with the targets of the Green Deal and Horizon Europe Mission “Adaptation to Climate Change”. The project comes at a time when vulnerable regions need support the most, to mitigate the climate change impacts and adapt for the future.
The Coastal Climate Core Service (CoCliCo) project aims to deliver an open-source web platform informing users on present-day & future coastal risks with the goal of improving decision-making on coastal risk management and adaptation, by establishing an integrated core service dedicated to coastal adaptation to sea-level rise. The platform will provide an interconnection between user engagement, information technologies for geospatial data management and risk adaptation to aid practitioners and policy makers on coastal land use planning and the maintenance of coastal infrastructure services.
The CLEVER Cities project uses nature-based solutions to address urban regeneration challenges and promote social inclusion in cities across Europe, South America and China. Hamburg, London and Milan are making nature-based interventions in key districts of their cities for urban regeneration. 6 other cities (Malmo, Madrid, Sfantu Gheorge, Belgrade, Quito, Larissa) are accompanying them, learning from them and contributing their own expertise. Through exchange between cities, inclusive collaboration and multi-disciplinary learning, the CLEVER Cities project aims to drive a new kind of nature-based urban transformation for sustainable and socially inclusive cities across Europe, Latin America and China.
The Regions4Climate project brings together 44 partners from 13 different European countries to demonstrate innovations that enhance societal resilience to the impacts of climate change, in line with the Paris Agreement and the EU Green Deal. Based on cross-sectoral strategies created by and for people, the project partners will collaboratively develop and implement novel social, technological, digital, business, governance, and environmental solutions to reinforce adaptive capacity and minimise vulnerability to climate impacts.
Pathways2Resilience accelerates climate adaptation in Europe. Supporting the EU Mission on Adaptation to Climate Change, the Pathways2Resilience programme will empower European regions and communities to co-design locally-led pathways towards a climate-resilient future, providing them with guidance adaptable to local needs.
Google's Environmental Insights Explorer (EIE) empowers thousands of cities and regions with actionable data and insights to reduce global emissions. Using exclusive data sources and modelling capabilities in a freely available platform, EIE helps cities and regions measure emission sources, run analyses, and identify strategies to reduce emissions - creating a foundation for effective action.
Supporters
The European Investment Bank (EIB) is the world’s largest multilateral lender and the biggest provider of climate finance. EIB provides financial support and knowledge for innovative projects, small businesses, infrastructure, and climate projects in order to foster sustainable growth development, and employment throughout Europe.
The European Committee of the Regions (CoR) is the voice of regions and cities in the European Union (EU). It represents local and regional authorities across the European Union and advises on new laws that have an impact on regions and cities (70% of all EU legislation). The CoR works to bring EU citizens closer to the EU. By involving regional and local representatives who are in daily contact with their electorate's concerns, but also by inviting citizens to participate in various events and debates, the CoR contributes to reducing the gap between the EU institutions' work and EU citizens.
The Covenant of Mayors for Climate & Energy brings together thousands of local governments voluntarily committed to implementing EU climate and energy objectives on their territory. The initiative, supported by the European Commission, now counts 7500+ signatories who pledge to reduce CO2 emissions by at least 40% by 2030 and to adopt an integrated approach to tackling mitigation and adaptation to climate change. Signatories are benefiting from access to guidance and tools as well as from ways to network, exchange experiences and to build capacity through regular events and city twinning activities.
ProGIreg uses nature for urban regeneration with and for citizens. The EU funded project implemets eight different nature-based solutionsto create productive green infrastructure that not only helps improve living conditions and reduce vulnerability to climate change, but also provides measurable economic benefits to citizens and entrepreneurs in post-industrial urban districts. Dortmund (Germany), Turin (Italy), Zagreb (Croatia) and Ningbo (China) host Living Labs in post-industrial districts where nature-based solutions are developed, tested and implemented. Cascais (Portugal), Cluj-Napoca (Romania), Piraeus (Greece) and Zenica (Bosnia and Herzegovina) closely follow the progress in the Living Labs and engage in city-to-city exchange to replicate the nature-based solutions.
The H2020 project BuiltHub seeks to maximize the value of Big Data by changing the way knowledge on the EU building stock is developed and shared for improved building energy management and policy-making. The ever-growing momentum of Big Data and its related technologies, and the capacity to collect and analyze massive amounts of data presents an unprecedented opportunity to improve the energy efficiency and resilience of the building sector.
CARDIMED aims to enhance Climate Resilience in the Mediterranean by mainstreaming Nature-based Solutions in systemic transformation. The project, a part of the EU mission on Adaptation to Climate Change, will demonstrate 47 different types of Nature-based Solutions through 83 interventions across 10 regions and 20 locations. Participating communities will establish the CARDIMED Resilience Alliance, which will function as the vehicle for expanding the network via upscaling the existing sites and adding new ones. The project expects to have 28 regions and 70 communities in the network by 2030, create 8000 jobs in the NBS sector, and mobilize over 450 M€ in climate investment.
The mission of Resilient Cities Catalyst is to help cities and communities create catalytic change to solve their most pressing challenges. Today, their work on the ground ranges from helping communities in California unlock millions of dollars of climate funding; to partnering with Australia’s Minderoo Foundation to designing a vision for more resilience in the aftermath of wildfires; to working with city and local leaders in Houston to help historically vulnerable neighborhoods mitigate risk.
Gold Standard was established in 2003 by WWF and other international NGOs to ensure projects that reduced carbon emissions featured the highest levels of environmental integrity and also contributed to sustainable development. With the adoption of the Paris Climate Agreement and the Sustainable Development Goals, we launched a best practice standard for climate and sustainable development interventions, Gold Standard for the Global Goals, to maximise impact, creating value for people around the world and the planet we share.
CDP runs the global independent environmental disclosure mechanism. CDP-ICLEI Track is the world’s leading climate reporting platform and progress accountability mechanism for cities, with over 1,100 cities participating annually. These cities are reporting over 8,000 urban sustainability actions. Through CDP-ICLEI Track, cities are also able to report to several initiatives such as numerous ICLEI initiatives, C40, WWF, NetZeroCities (EU Cities Mission), Union of the Baltic Cities, the UNFCCC campaigns Race to Zero and Race to Resilience, and the Global Covenant of Mayors at the same time.
Science for Environment Policy (SfEP) is a free news and information service published by the Directorate-General for Environment (DG ENV) of the European Commission. It is designed to help busy policymakers keep up-to-date with the latest environmental research findings needed to design, implement and regulate effective policies. The News Alerts are a cornerstone of the SfEP service. Presented in concise and easy-to-understand newsletter articles, SfEP offers quick access to scientific research on environmental issues. SfEP also releases regular Future Briefs on the latest environmental topics. Interested to know more? Subscribe to the newsletter and follow SfEP on Twitter.
In cooperation with
The Resilient Cities Network is a city-led organization that is driving urban resilience action to protect vulnerable communities from climate change and other physical, social and economic urban adversities and challenges. With support from The Rockefeller Foundation and other funding strategic partners, the Network aims to continue supporting cities and their Chief Resilience Officers in future-proofing their communities and critical infrastructure with a unique reach, strength and legacy to understand and support the challenges of the ever-growing urban society.
The Nordic Urban Resilience Institute (NURI) is a knowledge hub on urban resilience, which offers a comprehensive experience in the field of resilience and a worldwide network of the area’s most important experts. NURI offers different activities such as projects, international conferences, workshops and trainings, and is the facilitator of the Resilient Regions Association, a neutral platform for collaboration between academia, public-and private sector.
Birgit Georgi is a consultancy company, led by landscape architect Birgit Georgi, which works both at national and international level on adaptation to climate change together with various stakeholders ranging from local, regional and national institutions, European and international city networks, EU, WHO, UNECE, UN and the ADB.
MCR2030 is built upon the success of the previous decade of advocacy work under the Making Cities Resilient (MCR) Campaign which was launched in 2010 and concluded at the end of 2020. The MCR Campaign, led by the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) and delivered with partners, achieved considerable success in promoting urban disaster resilience through local government authorities. It advocated the need to reduce risk and develop urban resilience through analysis and action plans, raised cities’ awareness and understanding of systemic issues and their connectedness, and through this process built local capacity and created or strengthened stakeholder partnerships.
Media Partnerships
Cities Today is the leading news platform on urban mobility and innovation, reaching an international audience of city leaders.
EURACTIV publishes free, independent policy news from across Europe and facilitates open policy debates in 13 languages. Their audience includes politicians, policymakers, business stakeholders, journalists, civil society, NGOs and other multipliers across Europe. EURACTIV provides a platform for comparing stakeholder positions, original source documents, videos and informed opinion.
The European Correspondent is an English-speaking, community-funded online media outlet that operates across borders. It benefits from the network of the over 170 journalists from every country in Europe to deliver you the stories that shape the continent.