As the effects of climate change continue to intensify, cities and towns are struggling to deal with the growing consequences. That’s why climate adaptation has emerged as a new priority for local leaders, who are implementing emergency response measures and policies to adapt to climate change.
Cities and towns, on the frontline of climate change
At the forefront of the battle against climate change, many European cities have already taken effective adaptation measures to protect their territories and residents from growing climate disasters.
Setúbal, in Portugal, has built a retention basin to combat flooding in its downtown area. The City of Zaragoza has adopted a Climate Emergency Action Plan focusing on prevention. In Italy, the historic town of Urbino has carried out a risk assessment and developed measures to manage the impacts of climate change, and the Slovenian town Razkrižje is currently solving the problem of flooding caused by its surrounding rivers, which damage private property and road infrastructure. Adapting to climate change was also an objective for Cornellà de Llobregat, a municipality in Spain. Suffering from extreme temperatures, the city created the ‘Climate Itineraries’, a co-design pathway to ensure accessibility to vital community space. Meanwhile the city of Debrecen has tackled flooding by focusing on flood management and water-based solutions through the installation of rainwater retention systems.
These are just a few examples among our signatories, many of whom have taken actions to become more resilient faced to growing climate disasters, most of them that were implemented as part of our new Policy Support Facility.
The Covenant’s Policy Support Facility
Beyond emergency responses to climate disasters, cities are adopting policies to adapt to the long-term effects of climate change. Urban planning is evolving to incorporate sustainable infrastructure, green spaces and resilient architecture.
The Covenant initiative plays a pivotal role in supporting signatories in their efforts to plan, implement and monitor long-term adaptation actions. If the Covenant of Mayors initiative started mainly as an initiative focused on mitigation measures, the adaptation component has become increasingly more important since it was introduced in 2014. However, many local governments still struggle to put in place effective adaptation measures. The Policy Support Facility (PSF) was launched in 2020 to respond to this shortcoming, with the aim of helping local and regional authorities to go from planning to action in climate adaptation.
The Facility strengthens the support provided by the Covenant of Mayors on adaptation thanks to dedicated peer-to-peer learnings and resources, publics seminars and informational podcasts.
Additionally, 12-member states were targeted for hosting national workshops and accessing technical assistance opportunities to help cities adapt effectively to climate change and its consequences.
On top of that, 36 cities and towns participating in the Covenant’s PSF programme worked with the help of experts to pilot new adaptation measures in their territories. You can find out all about the actions taken by the cities and towns of the programme in the PSF Final Report.
Discover here the PSF Final Report to get inspired!
Going Forward
Last year, the European Union launched the Mission on Adaptation to climate change, focused on supporting EU regions, cities and local authorities in their efforts to build resilience against the impacts of climate change. The Mission’s work builds on the learnings from our Policy Support Facility Programme. Going forward, the Covenant of Mayors will continue to work with the Mission Adaptation to help signatories in their efforts to adapt to climate change, pulling from the examples and knowledge produced by Mission cities, towns and regions and the Mission Portal.
Details
- Publication date
- 11 March 2024