Evolving Regions

On Tuesday, June 15, 2021 Katharina Schrot presented the project Evolving Regions at the Klima.Werkstatt of KlimaDiskurs.NRW e.V.. Under the title "Climate Impacts and Climate Adaptation in NRW", decision makers* from politics, civil society, economy and science came together to discuss relevant topics of climate adaptation and resulting challenges for municipalities.

After a substantive introduction by the NRW Environment Minister Ursula Heinen-Esser on the NRW Climate Adaptation Act and the President of the Federal Environment Agency Prof. Dirk Messner on climate impacts and climate adaptation, various stakeholders discussed necessary measures in a panel. The following four workshops focused on different aspects of climate adaptation: From municipal climate adaptation to industry and business adaptation, climate adaptation in agriculture, forestry and water management, and climate change impacts on cooling. Katharina Schrot presented the Evolving Regions project from the Social Research Center Dortmund in the workshop "Climate adaptation in concrete terms - existing at the municipal level" and discussed the need for climate adaptation at the local level with various municipal stakeholders. After all, the consequences of climate change are clearly felt, especially at the local level. Moderated by Angela Wegener from Radio Wuppertal, Katharina Schrot was joined by Dr. Philipp Lande from LAG 21 NRW, Karl-Heinz Frings from the City of Duisburg and Anke Valentin from Wila Bonn, who provided exciting input and led to a lively discussion about climate adaptation at the local level.

Further information on the KlimaDiskurs.NRW association can be found here and on the event here.

Last Wednesday (16.06.) a delegation of the LIFE project Evolving Regions presented the project at the "Covenant of Mayors Investment Forum - energy efficiency finance market place". Organized by the European Commission's Directorates-Generals for Energy and Climate Action and the European Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency (CINEA), a total of 44 projects were presented to representatives of the Covenant of Mayors Initiative, investors and representatives of the European Commission.

The Covenant of Mayors Initiative, founded in 2008, is an association of more than 7000 local and regional governments in 57 countries which deal with energy and climate according to the bottom-up principle. The goal is to network local governments that voluntarily commit to meeting or exceeding the EU's climate and energy targets.

The project Evolving Regions from the Social Research Center Dortmund was represented in the focal point "Public investments in innovations for adaptation to climate change" by the project coordinator Jürgen Schultze, the regional promoter from the district of Minden-Lübbecke Leona Aileen Eichel and Thomas Kull from the NRW.Bank. They could use the opportunity to present the project to relevant representatives from different sectors related to climate adaptation and energy efficiency financing. Under the title "Evolving Regions - Social innovation for targeted investments in regional climate action", the path towards a climate resilient region, the roadmapping approach, the financial scaling tools and the first implementation in the Minden-Lübbecke region were presented.

The Covenant of Mayors Investment Forum, attended by a total of 500 people, was divided according to 5 different focus areas: Driving Change Locally, Financing Energy Efficiency in the Public Sector, Renovation Wave: Boosting Investment in Home Renovation, Innovative Solutions for Financing Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, and Public Investment in Climate Change Adaptation Innovations.

For more information, and to view the presentation and recording of the event, click here.

To the recording of the presentation.