news
Nine additional municipalities taking part in
the local adaptation to Climate Change project
Published on May 27th, 2015
Together with the 26 municipalities that signed a protocol of participation in the project, an additional nine are also benefiting from ClimAdaPT.Local. This is an initiative that aims to help municipalities to design adaptation strategies to climate change. Among the cities that were able to sign up by April 15th are, for instance, Vila do Conde and Esposende. So far the balance has been positive, as revealed by Gil Penha-Lopes, project coordinator, in an interview to Clima@EduMedia.
The main mission is to “provide professionals” in the areas of land use and the environment of each local authority with skills to develop adaptation strategies to climate change. The training began in January and is still an ongoing process. The ClimAdaPT.Local holds quarterly training sessions, following the development of each municipality with the support of regional coordinators, experts in the field of climate change.
“The last training was at the end of March, beginning of April”, said he. According to an assessment of the work already developed, Gil Penha-Lopes informs us that in this training the “municipalities have already presented an analysis of current vulnerabilities”. “Floods in cities with large urban areas, prolonged droughts in rural areas, desertification either ecological or urban, and heat waves”, he lists. There are also some ongoing adaptation measures related to coastal areas. Gil Penha-Lopes gave as an example the municipality of Ílhavo: “I know that several processes are being implemented to reduce the risk of flooding, sea overtopping, due to more intense storms, etc.”
The teacher and researcher at the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon further claims that in the latest training at the regional level, they attempted to explain the scenarios forecasted for Portugal until the end of the century. “In this training, we provide a number of manuals and guides for municipalities to use in order to issue a report on their perception of future vulnerability, according to the scenarios presented”, he explains. “This material is equally useful to write a report on future vulnerabilities as well as pinpoint adaptation options to climate change and impact sensitivity”, he adds. The goal “is for municipalities to realize some of the advantages climate change can bring in the upcoming years.”
Tools to fund adaptation measures
When questioned about the implementation of measures, Gil Penha-Lopes explains that ClimAdaPT.Local does not have the ambition, for the duration of the project, to fulfil each of them. The project aims to provide tools so that there is a better justification on how to adapt to climate change so that the measures are able to attract financing more easily. “Funding will be available for the implementation of adaptation measures”, he claims.
ClimAdaPT.Local also fosters the dynamic development and promotion of a website, of a platform of interaction between the municipal professionals, and of various communication and dissemination strategies. On this last aspect, Gil Penha-Lopes reinforces that, by itself, it already constitutes an adaptation measure and that the municipalities have requested project experts to visit the schools.
With regard to the disclosure of the initiative and of the concepts of adaptation and mitigation of climate change, partnerships are planned with social media and the dissemination of science programs, as well as workshops for journalists on this topic. The deadline for the ClimAdaPT.Local project to meet its goals is April 30, 2016. On that date, all municipalities will have designed and presented strategies for adaptation to climate change for the locality.
The ClimAdaPT.Local project is integrated in the AdaPT programme, which is run by the Portuguese Environment Agency (APA – Agência Portuguesa do Ambiente), IP, as manager of the Portuguese Carbon Fund, (FPC – Fundo português de Carbono), totalling 1.5 million euros, co-financed by the EEA Grants at a rate of 85% and 15% by the FPC.
By: Renata Silva
“The last training was at the end of March, beginning of April”, said he. According to an assessment of the work already developed, Gil Penha-Lopes informs us that in this training the “municipalities have already presented an analysis of current vulnerabilities”. “Floods in cities with large urban areas, prolonged droughts in rural areas, desertification either ecological or urban, and heat waves”, he lists. There are also some ongoing adaptation measures related to coastal areas. Gil Penha-Lopes gave as an example the municipality of Ílhavo: “I know that several processes are being implemented to reduce the risk of flooding, sea overtopping, due to more intense storms, etc.”
The teacher and researcher at the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon further claims that in the latest training at the regional level, they attempted to explain the scenarios forecasted for Portugal until the end of the century. “In this training, we provide a number of manuals and guides for municipalities to use in order to issue a report on their perception of future vulnerability, according to the scenarios presented”, he explains. “This material is equally useful to write a report on future vulnerabilities as well as pinpoint adaptation options to climate change and impact sensitivity”, he adds. The goal “is for municipalities to realize some of the advantages climate change can bring in the upcoming years.”
Tools to fund adaptation measures
When questioned about the implementation of measures, Gil Penha-Lopes explains that ClimAdaPT.Local does not have the ambition, for the duration of the project, to fulfil each of them. The project aims to provide tools so that there is a better justification on how to adapt to climate change so that the measures are able to attract financing more easily. “Funding will be available for the implementation of adaptation measures”, he claims.
ClimAdaPT.Local also fosters the dynamic development and promotion of a website, of a platform of interaction between the municipal professionals, and of various communication and dissemination strategies. On this last aspect, Gil Penha-Lopes reinforces that, by itself, it already constitutes an adaptation measure and that the municipalities have requested project experts to visit the schools.
With regard to the disclosure of the initiative and of the concepts of adaptation and mitigation of climate change, partnerships are planned with social media and the dissemination of science programs, as well as workshops for journalists on this topic. The deadline for the ClimAdaPT.Local project to meet its goals is April 30, 2016. On that date, all municipalities will have designed and presented strategies for adaptation to climate change for the locality.
The ClimAdaPT.Local project is integrated in the AdaPT programme, which is run by the Portuguese Environment Agency (APA – Agência Portuguesa do Ambiente), IP, as manager of the Portuguese Carbon Fund, (FPC – Fundo português de Carbono), totalling 1.5 million euros, co-financed by the EEA Grants at a rate of 85% and 15% by the FPC.
By: Renata Silva