Pathways2Resilience supports regions in
developing transformative solutions
to
foster their climate adaptation.
What is Climate Resilience?
Climate resilience could be defined as the ability to anticipate, prepare for, and respond to hazardous events, trends, or disturbances related to climate. Improving climate resilience involves assessing how climate change will create new, or alter current, climate-related risks, and taking steps to better cope with these risks. It is different to climate adaptation, which is the process of adjusting to actual or expected climate and its effects, in order to moderate harm or exploit beneficial opportunities.
Why it is essential to foster
climate resilience in the regions.
Climate change is a reality, and whether we like it or not, we are already locked into future
warming.
With it comes a range of potentially damaging impacts, with more frequent and
intense extremes weather events.
Under the now highly likely 2°C global warming
scenario, studies are even projecting welfare losses of 83 €billion/year (Szewczyk et al.,
2020).
While the economic impact is concerning, it is the potential feedback loops that
could be truly devastating – including the breakdown of ecosystems, unemployment, large-scale
migration, increased inequalities, and the weakening of the state (IPCC 2022).
Regions
and communities have a major role to play in enabling rapid and far-reaching change. According
to the European Committee of the Regions (2021), 90% of climate change adaptation measures are
currently undertaken by local and regional authorities.
What is the current situation in Europe
regarding
regional
resilience?
Despite inspiring examples of adaptation solutions in Europe, the
common practice is to focus on stand-alone, easy-to-measure projects that tackle specific issues
on a case-by-case basis, sector by sector, and depending on policy opportunities. Therefore, the
Mission Adaptation and European Green Deal acknowledge the need to adopt a systemic,
transformative approach instead of the current piecemeal approach.
However, adaptive
capacities vary considerably across Europe, from well-prepared locations having detailed
knowledge of climate risks and risk mitigation measures, having a diversity of competencies, and
well-functioning governance structures, to more vulnerable locations.
As climate impacts
and adaptive capacities differ greatly across regions, tailor-made responses and measures are
required for a positive and sustainable transformation towards climate resilience.