Financing Climate Resilience: Bridging Pathways, Projects, and Investment
18. June 13:30 - 15:15
Room 2
The workshop follows an interactive, table-based format. It begins with a short introduction to the Adaptation Investment Pathway and insights from the Local Resilience Task Force (LRT). Participants will then engage directly with experts to better understand the process of developing bankable projects.
This workshop explores how cities and regions can move from climate risk assessments and adaptation pathways toward bankable resilience investments. Drawing on experiences from Pathways2Resilience, CLIMATEFIT, BLOSSOM, UNDRR, and building on EIB's advisory expertise, it will highlight practical steps such as project identification, costing, investment structuring, stakeholder engagement, and capability development, and stakeholder engagement - and how co-benefits can strengthen the financial case for adaptation investments. The session aims to identify solutions to bridge the gap between resilience planning and finance through interactive exchange among participating regions.
Speakers
Senior Manager, Cities Finance Specialist (Capital Hub), LGI / NetZeroCities
Khadija Mernissi, Senior Manager, Cities Finance Specialist (Capital Hub), LGI / NetZeroCities
Before joining LGI, Khadija worked in Leveraged Finance and Debt Capital Markets, advising corporates bond issuers and private equity clients on financing structures and sustainable bonds. She also held positions in private debt and equity. She brings over a decade of experience spanning investment banking and impact finance, with a focus on capital mobilisation. She now serves as City Finance Specialist within the Capital Hub of NetZeroCities, the European Commission's mission platform supporting 100 cities across Europe in becoming climate-neutral and smart by 2030
Head of EIB Group Office in Portugal
Joao Fonseca, Head of EIB Group Office in Portugal
Moderators
Adaptation Finance Lead, Climate KIC
Marieta Homann, Adaptation Finance Lead, Climate KIC
Marieta is an Innovation Finance Specialist at Climate KIC, where her focus is on investments to improve the adaptation and resilience of European cities. Her background is in investment management and sustainable finance. For the past ten years she has been executing direct and fund investment strategies in real estate, timberland, impact and blended finance in developed and emerging markets, and mobilising large-scale capital for the transition to a low-carbon, resilient economy.
Expert, Resilience and Climate Adaptation, ICLEI Europe
Laura Pirazan-Palomar, Expert, Resilience and Climate Adaptation, ICLEI Europe
Laura is an Urban Resilience and Adaptation Expert at ICLEI Europe. She is an environmental engineer with a double Master’s degree in Natural Resources Management and Development from the Technische Hochschule Köln (TH Köln) in Germany and the Universidad Autónoma de San Luis Potosí (UASLP) in Mexico. Laura has experience in environmental consulting in Colombia and has also contributed to academia as an external tutor at TH Köln, developing project ideas related to nature-based solutions (NbS) and ecosystem-based disaster risk reduction. Currently, she is actively involved in EU-funded projects focusing on climate change adaptation, NbS, urban resilience, cultural heritage, and climate finance for adaptation.
Finance Innovation Specialist, Climate KIC
Ana Enev, Finance Innovation Specialist, Climate KIC
Ana is a climate finance innovation specialist at Climate KIC, focusing on driving innovation that facilitates access to capital for the adaptation and CDR markets. She is leading the Adaptation Finance Innovation Lab, the first dedicated facility in Europe to developing innovative adaptation finance instruments and business models and an initiative launched as part of the Pathways2Resilience programme. She is also co-developing a debt facility dedicated to reducing the cost of debt for high-permanence nature-based carbon removal solutions, in partnership with the EIF and HSBC. She is also currently exploring innovations at the intersection of participatory finance and Web3.
Climate Finance and Policy Specialist, Centro Euro-Mediterraneo sui Cambiamenti Climatici (CMCC)
Lilia Magdoud, Climate Finance and Policy Specialist, Centro Euro-Mediterraneo sui Cambiamenti Climatici (CMCC)
Lilia Magdoud is a Climate Finance and Policy Specialist at CMCC, focusing on climate adaptation financing, resilience investment planning, and policy-oriented applied research. With over twelve years of experience in international finance and development, and academic backgrounds in finance and sociology, she works at the intersection of climate risk, governance, investment, and resilience.
Senior Climate Adaptation Specialist, Paul Watkiss Associates
Kit England, Senior Climate Adaptation specialist, Paul Watkiss Associates
Kit is a Senior Climate Adaptation specialist at Paul Watkiss Associates, with over 15 years’ experience in adaptation planning, economics and finance in Europe. He leads Pathways2Resilience’s adaptation investment planning framework for 100 regional Climate Resilience Investment Plans. He pioneered Climate Ready Clyde, one of Europe’s first place-based transformational adaptation partnerships, and worked for 10 years on economic development and adaptation in Newcastle, Glasgow, and for the UK Government.
He regularly advises (sub)national Governments and NGOs, including UNEP, OECD, JRC, World Business Council on Sustainable Development and UK Government. He was a contributing author to the third and fourth UK Climate Change Risk Assessments, the finance chapter of the UNEP Adaptation Gap Report and the ISO adaptation standards.