The 2024 EURESFO in Valencia launched a European Resilience Partnership for united climate action

The new initiative seeks to strengthen the variety of climate programmes under the resilience label

During the past three days, more than 800 participants and 100 speakers from 33 countries navigated the crucial aspects of resilience, sustainable development and recovery and witnessed the launch of the European Resilience Partnership at the 2024 edition of the European Urban Resilience Forum (EURESFO).

The event took place during the Valencia Cities Climate Week, bringing together high-level representatives of cities and regions from across Europe to discuss challenges and opportunities to strengthen resilience in the context of sustainable urban development. Co-organised by ICLEI Europe, the European Environment Agency, and ICLEI member and European Green Capital city of Valencia, the event focused on multilevel governance, water resilience and the Blue Economy, and the transformation towards climate-neutral cities and regions.

Additionally, it addressed building resilience in fragile settings and bridging the gap between humanitarian response and post-conflict recovery.

What’s the European Resilience Partnership all about?

The European Resilience Partnership initiative aims to break silos between societal, environmental, and economic resilience actions by building capacity through enabling collaboration across different sectors, governance scales, financing tools, and initiatives. By doing so, it will also support local and regional governments in their journey to become more resilient.

Elina Bardram, Mission Manager, Director for Adaptation & Resilience, Communication, and Civil Society Relations, DG CLIMA, European Commission, described the impetus for this in the following manner: "In the face of climate change, collaboration is not merely an option but a necessity. Inclusive and participatory processes are also key for pursuing the priorities of the European Union.”

As climate and water-related stresses increase both in terms of frequency and impact, many European cities and regions are looking into solutions that can address the intertwined ongoing challenges and protect vulnerable populations.

Water resilience and the promotion of existing blue economy models are central pillars for economic growth and for building resilience within and beyond the Mediterranean while improving the ocean ecosystems.

EURESFO also aimed to discuss the ambitious objectives of the European Green Deal and Adaptation Strategy that need to be implemented at the local and regional levels and require enormous amounts of investments to build societal, environmental and economic resilience.

Investment needs are pushing cities to rethink how governance and financial structures need to be adequate to allow their social, economic, and infrastructural systems in order to achieve resilience as well as climate neutrality.