EUSDR Conference on Adapting to Climate change in relation to WATER in Budapest

EUSDR PA4 and PA5 organized a conference on “Adapting to Climate change in relation to WATER”. The conference was held in a hybrid format.

The event was structured to have an overview of the climate adaptation policies and models, different Missions and then to share experiences from successful projects supported by different programs ( LIFE, Intereg and Horizon Europe). Practices and pilots from projects run in Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, Germany, Spain were shared. Altogether there were 17 presentations and 21 speakers.

The Conference provided a keynote policy overviews from Mr Johannes KLUMPERS, from DG CLIMA who focused on the strengthened role for adaptation and also highlighted that the Commission will draw up an EU-wide climate risk assessment, informed about the Water Resilience Initiative and several funding opportunities. It was followed by Mr Marcin Sadowski, from DG MARE,who stressed that the European Commission launched five new EU Missions in Oct 2020, including the Mission “Restore our Ocean and Waters by 2030. He also referred to the Mission Lighthouses and to the Danube Lighthouse, provided information about the Danube River basin, freshwaters WPs and called parties to join to the Mission Charter.

Mr Willem Maetens, from EU JRC shared information about the drought in the Danube Region and in Europe and on the three pillars of integrated drought management, referring to the European Drought Impact Database. Mr Adam Kovács, from the ICPDR continued sharing information on Droughts and Water Scarcity in the Danube River Basin via coordinated activities towards water resilience.

Sessions were held on

I.Nature-based solution, green infrastructure and water retention measures

II.Importance of soil moisture

III.Changes in the water quality of the Danube and climate adaptation measures

The conference enabled participants to share their views and learn about successful climate adaptation models and their challenges.

Presentations are available here:

1. Adapting to climate change in relation to water DG CLIMA

2. SADOWSKI – Mission Ocean – DG MARE

3._JRC_EUSDR

4. Droughts in the DRB_ICPDR

5. GWP 2023

6. LIFE-MICACC