Reflecting on 10 years of resilience building in European cities and regions
18. October 9:15 - 10:30
The Plenary will set the scene for EURESFO 2023. After a decade of adaptation and resilience talk and programming, we take stock of the current situation for ‘forward learning’. This year again, the news are overflowing with reports on extreme heatwaves, droughts, catastrophic wildfires as well as devastating flooding in Greece, Spain, France, Croatia, Turkey, Libya, and many other countries. Despite a decade of efforts and substantial progress made on climate change adaptation and resilience building, our response capacity appears still limited compared to the challenges we face and the ones we expect to face in future.
What could be reasons for this situation and how can we improve uptake of lessons learnt and experiences shared to upscale and fasten resilience across Europe?
This is the underlying question of the panel discussion addressing the issues from a cities’ perspective. City representatives from bigger and smaller cities of different regions in Europe and beyond will share their observations, specific experience, challenges and recommendations how to move forward in mainstreaming urban resilience.
Speakers
City Councilor, Cascais
Joanna Balsemao, City Councilor, Cascais
City of Athens
Elissavet Bargianni, City of Athens
Head of Climate Adaptation at the South African Presidential Climate Commission
Dhesigen Naido , Head of Climate Adaptation at the South African Presidential Climate Commission
Dhesigen is currently Head of Climate Adaptation at the South African Presidential Climate Commission. He is also Head of the African Climate Risk and Human Security Programme at the Institute for Security Studies, Africa. He is a leader, a scientist and activist for positive social change. He is also President of the global NGO, Human Right 2 Water, and a Founding Member of the Water Policy Group. He is a member of the Board of the International Water Management Institute (IWMI), a member of the CGAIR and Vice Chair of the Technical Advisory Group on Water to the UAE. He is also a Board member of the International Water Management Institute (IWMI), a CGIAR entity.
He was previously the CEO of the Water Research Commission (WRC), South Africa’s dedicated national Water and Sanitation Innovation, Research and Development Agency for 10 years. He has previously served in senior positions in the South African national government and South African universities having begun his career as a medical scientist in a specialist children’s hospital. He was a Councillor of the South African National Advisory Council on Innovation (NACI). He counts his lovely wife and beautiful children as both his primary source of inspiration and the vanguard of his humility.
City of Torres Vedras
Dulcineia Ramos, City of Torres Vedras
Dulcineia Ramos is the councillor for the Environment, Tourism and Internationalization of the municipality of Torres Vedras, Portugal. She has a PhD in Tourism and a Master in Spatial Planning and Environmental Planning. Before, she had worked at the Western Tourism Region and at Peniche City Council for 10 years as a Senior Tourism Technician and has worked as a teacher and researcher in several higher education institutions.
She collaborated with several entities in carrying out tourism development projects, as well as in impact studies and in various strategic plans that advocate the tourism sustainability of the territories. She also participates in European Union projects, notably the CIM (European Project-Creativity and Innovation Management) and in the preparation of UNESCO applications. She is also an evaluator for the National Research Agency (ANI) for projects applying for European funding, in addition to participating as a mentor in several Tourism Startup projects. She is a reviewer for scientific journals and is a member of the scientific board of several national and international conferences. She is the author and co-author of several books and scientific articles.
Adviser for Climate Pact European Commission
Laurence Graff, Adviser for Climate Pact European Commission
Member of City Council, Head of Budget and Social-Economic Development Committee, Vinnytsia City Council
Svitlana Yarova, Member of city council, head of budget and social-economic development committee, Vinnytsia city council
Svitlana Yarova for the last 8 years have been on a position of member of Vinnytsia city council. Last 4 years as a head of budget and social-economic development committee. Before the full scale invasion russia to Ukraine, Svitlana leaded projects of creating an innovative technology park called Crystal and project of industrial parks in Vinnytsia. Those parks were ocused on people, decarbonized, resilient to climate change and promotes a sustainable urban environment. Before that, Svitlana created an innovative and inclusive youth centre called Kvadrat based on renovation of old building.
City of Setubal
Carla Guerreiro, Vice-President of Setubal Municipality
Carla Guerreiro is the Vice-President of Setubal Municipality where she has been the councillor responsible for environment, energy, education and human resources since 2009. Carla Guerreiro is also the current President of ENA´s Administration Board – Arrábida Energy and Environment Agency and a teacher – she has a teaching degree on mathematic and natural sciences.
Climate Change Adaptation Manager, TECNALIA Research and Innovation
Efrén Feliu, Climate Change Adaptation Manager, TECNALIA Research and Innovation
Holds a Building Engineering Degree as well as different postgraduates including spatial planning and territorial development. Has a relevant professional background in consultancy and capacity building for public administrations and utilities. He is currently Climate Change Manager at the City Territory and Environment Area of Tecnalia, coordinating applied research projects for the development of Decision Support Systems in the fields of sustainable spatial development, nature-based solutions, regional-urban resilience and sectoral climate change adaptation. Worked in Central America for over 4 years and is involved in international and European initiatives for more than 20 years, including several Horizon Europe projects, ESPON and Copernicus contracts, as well as standardisation activities at ISO and CEN, or the Spanish Mirror Group for the EU Mission Adaptation to Climate Change.
Global Director of Network Engagement and Head for Europe and the Middle East for the Resilient Cities Network
Lina Liakou, Global Director of Network Engagement and Head for Europe and the Middle East for the Resilient Cities Network
Lina is a senior professional with international expertise in city governance, sustainability and resilience. An inspiring leader and strategic thinker with experience in transforming cities and organizations. She is currently leading the Resilient Cities Network's global city engagement work and the network's resilience practice in Europe and the Middle East. Prior to that, Lina was Deputy Mayor for Urban Resilience and Development Planning for the City of Thessaloniki in Greece.Lina is a trained architect and urban designer.
Moderators
Director, Strong in a Changing Climate
Birgit Georgi, Director, Strong in a Changing Climate
Birgit Georgi supports cities across Europe and businesses to adapt to the challenges of climate change. She is a landscape architect and has worked specifically on urban adaptation to climate change since 2010, when the first city initiatives came up with the topic. As project manager at the European Environment Agency, she has led numerous urban adaptation assessment reports, like the series „Urban Adaptation to Climate Change in Europe“. Thereby, she has worked intensively with cities and city networks on one side and with national governments, the European Commission, other European stakeholders and experts on the other side in a multi-level approach. She has been one of the co-founders of the European Urban Resilience Forum. Since 2017, she continued working as an independent expert with her company Strong in a Changing Climate (https://www.birgitgeorgi.eu/) helping cities and businesses even more directly - individually or as expert of Urban Innovative Actions and the European Urban Initiative.
Deputy Regional Director - Sustainable Resources, Climate & Resilience, ICLEI European Secretariat
Holger Robrecht, Deputy Regional Director - Sustainable Resources, Climate & Resilience, ICLEI European Secretariat
Holger joined ICLEI in 1997. He holds a Diploma in spatial planning and is member of ICLEI’s Board of Directors, and leads ICLEI´s Sustainable Resources, Climate & Resilience team. Holger holds more than 25 years of experience in local environmental and sustainability management and planning, project development and co-ordination, team supervision as well as guidance and training. He developed, supervised and coordinated international and European projects including on urban resilience, climate adaptation, nature-based solutions and green infrastructures through various research projects and engaged with studies such as the European Environment Agency’s report on ‘Urban adaptation to climate change in Europe 2016’ and the ‘EKLIPSE Impact Evaluation Framework’.