Mediterranean regions: Cooperating for climate resilience

I. Rationale of the event and our regional partnership’s composition

The European Climate Risk Assessment (EUCRA) projected trends confirm that Southern Europe regions will face stronger climatic pressures than the rest of Europe and this asymmetrical exposure will exacerbate the already existing disparities between regions in terms of need for climate adaptation, risk prevention and preparedness. This scenario will considerably affect the attractiveness and the competitiveness factors in such regions, leading to an inevitable impact on the EU territorial, social and economic cohesion.

Many key actors at all levels – international, European, national, and local/regional – acknowledge this fact and agree on the need for preparedness and action with a multilevel governance approach, across policy areas, developing the right tools, and with a clear support from EU budget, in particular Cohesion investment.

The Committee of the Regions has highlighted this message in the EU Annual Report on the State of the Regions and Cities, the Opinion of the Future of Cohesion Policy and in the draft opinion on Global Green Deal (in preparation). Also, a key EU network such as CPMR is particularly committed to tackling climate change and strengthen EU adaptation action, and active in EU Energy and Climate policies, always standing up for the territorial dimension as key for the effectiveness of these policies.

The partner regions are members of the European Committee of the Regions and of the CPMR and its Intermediterranean Commission (IMC). Furthermore, these four mediterranean regions are currently partnering up with other Mediterranean regions – EU and beyond - around the climate adaptation challenge under different forums and initiatives such as the Climate Task Force, the Interregional Mediterranean Forum to Combat Desertification, the European Climate Pact or the EU Mission on Adaptation to Climate Change.

Our session counted with a keynote speech from Mrs. Elina Bardram, Director Adaptation & Resilience, Communication, and Civil Society of DG CLIMA. Some remarks from her speech are the following:
• President von der Leyen's political guidelines outline an agenda to prepare and be ready for external shocks and threats. Internal security, adaptation strategy and preparedness are the basis. Invitation for the next mandate to create a European adaptation plan, actions in sectors such as agriculture, energy supply and critical infrastructure.
• In 2024, the first climate risk assessment with a multilevel governance approach has taken place, and the importance of policy preparation and funding to address climate impacts have been highlighted.
• Thanks to tools like Copernicus, we can better predict scenarios to prevent further damage.
• Within the mission adaptation horizon Europe, we are connecting European regions that account for 40% of the population through efficiency plans and replication platforms, among others, to exchange good practices and be able to scale state-of-the-art agricultural and technology capabilities.
• The European Environment Agency seeks to empower regional authorities to take decisions, providing them with better cohesion funds. Mission letters establish a preparedness strategy through a holistic agenda.

Convinced that climate risks cannot be addressed in isolation, this partnership has intended to contribute to the approach and follow up actions included in the recent EC Communication on Managing climate risks, including improved governance, tools for risk owners, structural policies and financial resilience, and covering selected impacted clusters: Natural ecosystems, Water, Health, Food/Agriculture, Infrastructure and built Environment, Economy. And with the final aim of producing an added value contribution and place-based approach message for the new European Commission and as part of the works of contributing to the post 2027 MFP proposals.

With this aim in mind, these 4 Mediterranean regions have exposed their regional climate challenges, which areas/sectors are most impacted by climate change, and what current measures they have put into practice to address them.

The session was structured following the next agenda (which is also upladed in the multimedia centre of our session's webpage):
- Opening
- Keynote speech
- First session: Introducing Mediterranean regions' challenges
- Second session/roundtable: Paving the way of the EU on managing climate risks and enhancing adaptation - current solutions on climate risks management and looking forward
- Contributions from the audience
- Closing


II. Introducing Mediterranean region’ challenges + Current solutions on climate risk management

a. REGION OF MURCIA
The Region of Murcia, located in the southeast of the Iberian Peninsula, counts with scarce precipitation (approximately 300-350 mm/year), with summer being an eminently dry season, and has an average annual temperature of around 19°C, being one of the regions with most hours of sunshine per year. Climate projections show a trend towards higher temperatures (heat waves more long, frequent and intense), average sea level rises (permanent and occasional flooding of part of the coastal space), a reduction in water availability (with longer and more frequent periods of drought), and an increase in anomalous and extreme atmospheric and climatological events, among others.
This situation impacts multiple sectors and areas of the Murcian ecosystems and economy:
 Ecosystems and Biodiversity: Alterations in plant and animal behavior, Increases in plagues and invasive species, Biodiversity losses and Changes in migration and reproduction patterns.
 Water Availability: Reductions in water resources and a Greater variability in water availability.
 Soil Resources, Forests and Agriculture: Increase in desertification, erosion, and salinisation, Changes of species and a Higher risk of fires.
 Health: Higher rates of respiratory diseases, heart episodes and climate-related deaths, Changes in temporal and dynamics of pathogens, vectors, etc.
 Tourist Sector: Changes in both tourist activities and patterns.

For the Region of Murcia, the main challenge ahead is effective and successful adaptation.
• Full integration of climate change in all relevant strategies and decision-making on planning (urban planning, hydrological, etc.)
• Deep understanding of climate risks and their immediate effects:
• Tools to properly assess climate risks
• Reliable framework of risk preferences
• Coherent, effective and realistic policies to ensure the necessary financial and social adjustments for successful adaptation (from a multi-level governance approach).
• Commitment, coordination and cooperation of all administrations and organizations with competences on climate change policies.
• Commitment from both public and private sectors: public-private collaboration.
• Awareness, collaboration, participation and coordination of the different actors (individuals, organizations, institutions): common ownership

Some of the solutions the Region of Murcia is already implementing to face this challenge are:
- Modifying the Mountains legislation to adapt to the current reality, to punish crimes against the environment
- Adapting the regional restoration law and studying whether we can use cohesion funds for forestry
- Created a climate change glossary for awareness raising
- Capacity building for regional public officials regarding climate adaptation
- Pushing data management for climate adaptation
- Finance
- Evaluating climate impact of laws

The speaker from the Region of Murcia threw an invitation to the audience to collaborate in the practical sphere, among other ways,
- Working in blue and green carbon
- Becoming Climate Pact Ambassadors to raise awareness among citizens + reaching Teachers4Climate
- Participating in the EU Missions

b. CALABRIA
Regione Calabria, located in the extreme south of the Italian peninsula, has variable precipitation (Average 2021 from 807 to 1.376 mm) and temperatures (Average 2021 in mountain areas: 5-7,5 C°, up to 25 C° in coastal areas), due to the geographical differences along the region (height from 0 to 2.267 m. – average 450m). Climate change has been manifesting in various ways too: In winter 2023, recorded precipitation was between 20% and 50% of the average seasonal precipitation; and in summer 2023, the temperature exceeded the average by almost 2°C and is the historically highest temperature reached in the entire region.
This situation impacts Calabria’s:
 Ecosystems and Biodiversity: Alien species in the seas, in particular a tropical toxic microalga “Ostreopsis Ovata”.
 Water Availability: Reductions in water resources for Agriculture and civil use
 Soil Resources, Forests and Agriculture: Floods, Droughts, Wildfires .
 Tourist Sector: Changes in marine and mountain activities,, risk of extreme events both in summer and winter

For Calabria, the main challenges ahead in terms of climate resilience are:
 Continuous improvement of water management: to secure sufficient irrigation in agriculture and drinkwater in cities and villages in the regional territory, as well as fighting against droughts.
 Continuous monitoring of the invasion from aliene species in the sea, particularly a tropical toxic microalga “Ostreopsis Ovata”.
 Preparedness to extreme events: Emergency plans for floods, storms in coastal areas and droughts.
 Exchange of experiences within the Intermediterranean Commission and common actions towards a Macro-regional Plan.

Two of the solutions Calabria is currently pplying to improve its climate resilience are:
- The implementation of regional laws regulating the centralization of the water services (irrigation in agriculture) for a more effective management of water resources and enhancing the emergencies’ response
- The setting up of a new monitoring system for natural ecosystems with a fleet of drones, for wildfires early warning. In 2022, over 36 fires (all of human origin) were detected in time and neutralized

During his intervention, the speaker, president of Calabria, remarked that:
- «We need to improve emergency plans in case of extreme events that cause both floods and droughts as well as storms in coastal areas, with enormous risks for both citizens and economic activities.»
- «The exchange of experiences and good practices with other Mediterranean regions, for the protection of coastal regions, which began with the “Bologna Charter”, now updated with the recent approval of the “Mediterranean Charter for Climate Adaptation” is of fundamental importance and, as President of the Intermediterranean Commission of the CPMR, I intend to promote and facilitate even more contacts between all interested actors for common actions that can lead to a future general plan for the Mediterranean Macro-region»
- «I would like to mention a statement made during the last General Assembly of the Intermediterranean Commission: “we must come to understand, for resilience to climate change, on what level of solidarity we can count on each other because this will be the real first test of European solidarity.»

c. MARCHE
Marche Region is located along the Adriatic coast, and similarly to the other Mediterranean regions, is facing the strong effects of climate change.
The peculiar morphological and geographical configuration of the Marche (including mountain, sea, hills, plains, river valleys), with a variety of environments and climatic conditions, implicates a wide range of climate change effects: Increase in temperature, intensification of extreme events, protraction of periods without rain have strong direct effects as droughts, decrease in water availability, coastal erosion, flooding, and heat waves. Among the consequences they count the reduction in fishing livestock, damage to infrastructures, reduction of agricultural productivity, alteration of tourist flow… are just some examples.
Some of the impacts of climate change in Regione Marche are
 Water Availability: Reductions in water resources and problems for water supply.
 Soil Resources and Agriculture: Reduction in agricultural productivity, increase in desertification and soil erosion
 Ecosystems and Biodiversity: Biodiversity losses, changes in distribution of vegetal and animal species, changes in migration and reproduction patterns; increase in forest fires.
 Civil protection: Higher occurrence of extremes events (especially river and sea floods) impacting structures, infrastructures and human security.
 Economic Sectors: Impact on tourist activities for changing climate condition, impacts on fishery for reduction of fish stock and for alien species.
To address the effects of climate change and to increase resilience, Marche Region has adopted the Regional Plan for Adaptation to Climate Change. The plan has a multidisciplinary and multilevel approach and introduces a robust governance at regional level.
The three dimension of the plan:
i) It is a mainstreaming plan
ii) it requires transversal governance capable of connecting the various sectors of intervention
iii) it improves the knowledge framework, since it is based on a scientific approach

For Marche, the main challenge ahead in their pathway to climate resilience is the need to efficiently implement actions and measures included in the plan, identifying and mobilizing adequate resources (public funds and private investments) to build resilience.

d. ANDALUCÍA
Andalucía, the southernmost region of the Iberian Peninsula, is located in the crossroads between two seas and two continents, has a complex orography and a great diversity of bioclimatic zones. Its mediterranean climate is associated with dry and hot summers, mild winters and irregular rainfalls. Regarding the climatic forecast of the VI IPCC report,
 Maximum Temperatures: The most pessimistic scenarios show an increase in temperatures by 4 to 9,5ºC for 2071-2100 period.
 Rainfall: a significant reduction in precipitations, reaching -25% across the coastline.
 Heatwaves. (2071-2100). The number of days with temperatures exceeding 40ºC is expected to increase dramatically in almost all of Andalusia, exceeding 15 days per year.
 Tropical Nights (Tº exceeds 20ºC): The most extreme scenario (SSP5-8.5) shows an increase of 70 to 90 days of tropical nights per year is projected in most of the territory, with increases exceeding 100 days in the Guadalquivir valley.

Andalucía highlights as its most pressuring challenges regarding climate resilience:
 Developing Risk Management Tools to improve assessment and defining measures accordingly
 Creating Ministerial Intersectoral Working Groups for the Integrated Management of Climate Risks
 Strengthening cooperation and participation of different public administrations in defining Adaptation policies
 Integrating Climate Change Adaptation across sectoral planning policies in the Andalusian Government
 Implementing Adaptation measures focused on the main strategic sectors
 Promoting Adaptation across the private sector.
 Promoting Nature Based Solutions as Climate Change Adaptation Measures
 Ensuring a social perspective that includes vulnerable target groups
 Promoting sustainable lifestyles.
 Defining Adaptation Plans in other territorial areas.

Some of the actions Andalucía is carrying out to achieve climate resilience are
- Climate Risk Assessment
- Planning adaptation – Improved governance
o Law 8/2018, October 8th, measures against climate change and the transition towards a new energy model in Andalucía
o Andalusian Climate Action Plan 2021-2030 (PAAC)
 Actions carried out 21-22. Figures:
• 119 actions
• Budget: 1.783 million euros
• 10 Ministries involved
 Planning for period 23-26. (in development. Colaboration MIP4Adapt)

Andalucía has extensive experience in the development of policies to combat climate change. To this end, the Andalusian Climate Action Plan (PAAC) was adopted as a general planning instrument, paying special attention to its alignment with national and European strategies and plans. As a result of this effort, the main lines of action developed present a high level of coherence with COM(2024) 91 final.
The speaker remarked that "In addition to the development of the Andalusian Climate Action Plan, Andalusia is part of a national Expert Group for the assessment of climate risks. At the European level, Andalusia is adhered to the Adaptation Mission and we receive technical assistance from the Community of Practice to improve the implementation of our adaptation strategy. Andalusia considers it necessary to continue in this line of work, generating knowledge in a participatory manner, sharing tools for integrated adaptation, offering assistance to the regions according to their progress and their level of risk"

III. Roundtable reactions: Our regions’ suggestions of future tools and strategies to achieve climate resilience

Another aim of our event was to bring up some suggestions drawn from the practical experience of these 4 mediterranean regions to the next Commission, regarding policy and funding instruments that could foster climate resilience. Some of the suggestions of our 4 regions to the next Commission are the following:
- We need innovative policies for risk prevention and management and the development of sophisticated predictive models that can provide reliable indications on the probability of extreme weather events, their potential effects and their probable evolution.
- We also need adequate information and training programs for the local population on how to behave in emergencies are an essential factor for the “protection of people and prosperity
- The macro-regional strategy should be supported by adequate funding; the various European Union programs should be better connected and coordinated in this sense. Regarding national strategies and plans, regional public authorities should be fully involved in their study and implementation, as they represent an essential governance level for correct implementation.
- "All the administrations involved are making significant efforts to develop a climate change adaptation policy in line with the European Adaptation Strategy, as well as these strategies at national and regional level. Adaptation to climate change from a systemic approach is complex and although progress is being made, there is still work to be done at all levels, for example, in terms of intersectoral governance, in the generation of knowledge and tools that facilitate the inclusion of climate change by the different sectors, as well as in the provision of training in their use".
- Without an adaptation fund, we will not be able to adapt to the needs of each region.
- Becoming Climate Pact Ambassadors to raise awareness among citizens + reaching Teachers4Climate
- Participating in the EU Missions

IV. Communication actions, visibility and audience participation

i. Communication plan and visibility
Our regional partnership agreed on a communication plan to reach the high communication standards expected for the EWRC. In this line, we convened a series of X posts, with visuals using the EWRC branding theme and font (which can be found on the @regMurciaBrux X account).
We also produced a factsheet per region, showcasing each region’s climate challenges, which we added to the multimedia centre of our webpage prior to the session, and posted in our tweets, as sneak peeks of the content of our session, to incentivize registration to the session.
We asked COPERNICUS for permission to have one of its satellite images as the official image of our partnership, which they happily granted, and we tagged them in our tweets, which they reposted – this boosted greatly the visibility of our session.

In addition, we also uploaded the position paper of the CPMR on climate resilience, as it was one of the central axis of our partnership, and given that the network granted us also a lot of visibility amon European regions.

ii. Assistance and participation
We counted with 80 participants in person and 109 participants who joined live online our webstreaming. In addition, 57 people had already accessed the recording of the session by Monday, the 14th.
During the participative part of our session, we used SLIDO, which led us with very varied and interesting contributions from our audience, which can also be found on the multimedia centre of our session’s webpage.