Periodic Reporting for period 1 - AGORA (A Gathering place to cO-design and co-cReate Adaptation)
Reporting period: 2023-01-01 to 2024-06-30
AGORA supports the overall objectives of the Mission on Adaptation to Climate Change by leveraging and step forwarding best practices, innovative approaches, policy instruments and governance mechanisms to engage communities and regions meaningfully and effectively in climate actions, accelerating and upscaling adaptation processes for building a climate resilient Europe. A set of pilot regions (Rome, Italy; Zaragoza, Spain; Dresden, Germany and Malmö, Sweden) constitute the arena to co-design, co-develop and co-implement climate adaptation solutions (WP2). AGORA is developing a roadmap for transformational change and upscale citizen engagement, for transferability of effective policy instruments and for ensuring long term legacy. This also is the result from the mapping of existing citizen engagement initiatives carried out in WP1 and the policy-related activities captured within WP4. This serves as the input to ensure the creation of a living digital environment for knowledge sharing and co-production (WP3) through four digital tools, three of which are already published. The Agora Community Hub, the Digital Academy on Climate Change Data and the Digital Academy on Disinformation are all available and will be improved through stakeholder feedback in the second half of the project, as well as publishing the AGORA App, which is a game that enables users to learn more about climate change. Having aware and informed citizens can contribute to greater capacity building and improve stakeholder engagement (WP5), which is complemented by events, workshops, and other valuable activities that can effectively promote societal transformational processes in different social, economic and political contexts through transdisciplinary tools and approaches. In this way, AGORA promotes democracy, climate justice, gender equality, equity, and fosters adaptive capacity and citizens’ empowerment to pro-actively support decision-making processes; and the awareness that there is no “one size fits all” solution. This is supported by detailed and tailored communication and dissemination activities (WP6), focusing on a direct strategy for scientific publications at the same time as creating specific channels for each type of target audience. In addition, the project has established solid links with other relevant EU funded projects (e.g. MAIA, SCIENCEUS) and beyond the EU, as the project is currently planning the launch of a joint webinar with the Mission and the Organization of American States and Acciona (a Spanish multinational firm of infrastructure and renewable energy), positioning the EU as a leader in achieving these objectives.
AGORA has carried out inception workshops in each Pilot Region where the objective was to identify vulnerabilities as well as key factors that could contribute to climate change adaptation strategies' effectiveness, co-designing processes and overall citizens' involvement. In addition, several focus group activities have already been carried out with various target groups including: youngsters, senior citizens, workforce and ethnic minorities. In this regard, the Pilots provide direct support to the regions and communities as for example in the case of Rome, the AGORA inception workshop carried out during November 2023 served as valuable input for the Adaptation Strategy published by the city in early 2024. At the same time, a mapping of existing citizen engagement initiatives was carried out, together with two peer-learning workshops with experts that could help identify the applicability and frameworks to be applied in each case. These results are gathered in the mapping of existing citizen engagement initiatives publicly available on the project’s website) as well as a consolidated summary of the results and stakeholder feedback from the first workshops in each Pilot region. Additional and complementary databases, materials and studies carried out linked to these tasks are also publicly available in AGORA’s project website. Additionally, synergies with other projects (e.g. SCIENCEUS or MAIA) cross-reference methodologies, create joint-capacity building events, and aligning joint database creations were established. The project has gained interest from international research institutions such as the Nomura Research Institute from Japan.
During the first 18 months, the AGORA Project achieved significant milestones in the co-creation and co-design of climate adaptation and mitigation strategies. The activities carried out within each of the four pilot regions have contributed to create and consolidate networks of local and regional stakeholders that had not previously worked together to address the issues that affect their geographical area. Other regions as well and other stakeholders (non-governmental organizations, Universities, etc.) have adhered to the AGORA project as followers in the four countries as well as in other nations (e.g. Ireland or Portugal). Furthermore, the project is currently participating in several Mission Adaptation Working Groups where AGORA has provided the results and expertise that can contribute to the development of regulatory frameworks and can support the adoption of innovative policies and strategies. Some of the digital tools developed by AGORA partners were tested by the private sector, specifically managers of multinational firms operating globally. Positive feedback was received from individuals residing in various geographical locations within and outside the EU, thus showing the relevance and applicability of the tools developed in the EU and internationally, in regions such as Australia or LATAM.