Call summary :

Scope and expected outcomes

Expected Outcome: In support of the European Green Deal, the EU Adaptation Strategy, the EU Mission on Adaptation to Climate Change and the EU Disaster Resilience Goals, the successful proposal will accelerate adaptation efforts of regional and local authorities. The project is expected to contribute to all of the following outcomes:
- The regional multi-risk assessment framework and the supporting toolbox already developed in the context of the Mission are further improved and their use is mainstreamed. As a result, scientific knowledge on climate risk assessments at the regional and local levels is strengthened.
- Regions and local authorities have conducted a comprehensive climate risk assessment and are therefore better equipped to reduce their vulnerability and exposure to climate change and to improve their climate resilience.
- Closer links between climate adaptation and disaster risk management policy actors, communities, scientists and civil society are established.
- Current and future climate risks are communicated more clearly to non-specialist audiences, boosting the buy-in and support for a wide range of actions for climate resilience at the regional and local levels and fighting climate disinformation.

Scope: The first European Climate Risk Assessment (EUCRA) concluded that Europe is not prepared for rapidly growing climate risks. Assessing climate risks is one the first steps that regional and local authorities need to undertake in the adaptation planning[1]. This step is key to provide robust adaptation plans that respond to the needs of the regional and local authorities.

From the survey conducted by the Mission with its Charter signatories, it emerged clearly that only 66% of the regional and local authorities had already assessed their climate risks and, in some cases, their climate risk assessments require update and further work to increase their robustness. Using these results as proxy for all regional and local authorities, there is an evident need for more robust regional and local climate risk assessments in Europe.

With its call HORIZON-MISS-2021-CLIMA-02-01, the Mission on Adaptation to Climate Change mandated the development of a methodological framework and toolbox for climate risk assessments at the regional and local levels and to provide direct support to regional and local authorities to use those tools. This topic aims to build upon the achievements of the project CLIMAAX, funded HORIZON-MISS-2021-CLIMA-02-01 :

1) by consolidating and further mainstreaming its regional climate risk assessment framework and supporting toolbox (1st objective thereafter)

2) by supporting additional regional and local authorities (not supported by CLIMAAX) to conduct regional climate risk assessments and to develop or revise community-based emergency and risk management plans (2nd objective thereafter).

Both objectives detailed below should be addressed by the proposals. By doing so, this topic directly contributes to the follow-up of the Commission Communication on managing climate risks, where, in its response to EUCRA, the European Commission committed to improving tools that support regions and local authorities better prepare for climate risks.

1st objective- Consolidating and further mainstreaming the framework and toolbox for climate risk assessments.

Further developments of the framework and toolbox for regional climate risk assessment should keep their initial requirements, namely:
- The improved toolbox and framework should be for multi-risk and multi-sector and include exposure and vulnerability.
- The improved toolbox should be broadly applicable in EU Member States (including Outermost Regions) and Associated Countries of Horizon Europe.
- The improved toolbox and related IT tools should be made open source, free and open licensed.

Further refinements of the methodological framework and supporting toolbox should aim to address emerging knowledge and data gaps and could reflect but are not limited to the following elements:
- Incorporating tailored ‘responses’ as a key part of the risk framework, as introduced in the sixth assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change;
- Considering, cascading and compounding risks and/or risks from other crises such as biodiversity loss and pollution;
- Accounting for the dynamic nature of climate risk that changes with time;
- Exploring how to translate future scenarios, designed at the global scale, into local risks;
- Incorporating supporting tools for regional climate risk management planning to effectively use the results of the climate risk assessments as basis for community-based emergency and risk m