Project description
Time to codesign climate-resilient futures
Adapting to climate change and building climate resilience in Europe have become crucial in the current context of global warming. The EU-funded PEERS project will empower more than 100 regions and communities across Europe to codesign visions of a climate-resilient future. By using a system innovation and capability-driven approach, regions and communities will chart transformative climate resilience pathways and innovation agendas to increase their climate resilience. The implementation and testing of transformative adaptation solutions will be supported by EUR 21 million cascade funding allocated through two public calls. Locally led innovation practice groups engaging regions and diverse stakeholders and a climate finance lab will contribute towards increasing knowledge on existing innovative adaptation solutions and promote access to adaptation finance.
Objective
There is a need for a radical step-up in the attention we pay to current and future climate impacts and associated efforts. Despite inspiring examples of adaptation solutions, stand-alone risk reduction projects that tackle issues through direct or existing policy levers are common practice. Adopting a systemic, transformative approach is advocated by the Mission Adaptation and European Green Deal. PEERS takes an innovative systemic approach to regional climate resilience; one indivisible from Europe’s future economic and social development, intersecting with net zero commitments, and demanding a markedly different approach from the one adopted so far.
PEERS will empower at least 100 regions and communities to co-design visions of a climate resilient future and corresponding transformative, locally led pathways and innovation agendas that ensure long-term impact through political commitment. We do this by: (a) mobilising regional interest and progressively elevating the ambition and capability of regions; (b) developing a Regional Resilience Journey framework (and supporting services) to equip regions and communities in developing climate resilience pathways and connected innovation agendas; (c) allocating €21M across 100 regions and communities via three open call cycles to support their Journeys (d) triggering a wide engagement of citizens and diverse stakeholders in the co-creation of the pathways; (e) increasing knowledge on adaptation innovations across Key Community Systems (KCS) and enabling conditions; (f) boosting literacy and access to (innovative) adaptation finance; and (g) developing a Resilience Maturity Curve to baseline and monitor regional resilience capacities.
Led by Climate KIC, the PEERS consortium brings the combined strength of: regional network organisations, technical designers and innovators of transformative adaptation, adaptation finance experts, learning and capability building specialists, and monitoring and innovation impact partner.
Fields of science
Programme(s)
Funding Scheme
HORIZON-RIA - HORIZON Research and Innovation ActionsCoordinator
1018 DC Amsterdam
Netherlands