What is climate resilience and why should we care? People around the globe are increasingly experiencing the impacts and the consequences of the ongoing climate crisis, with some bearing the brunt more than others.

With extreme floods, heatwaves and droughts happening closer to home in recent years, there is a pressing need to develop an innovative approach in how we tackle the devastating effects of climate change. But how would this new approach look and what would it entail? Pathways2Resilience could be it – a five-year EU-funded programme that aims to empower at least 100 regions and communities across Europe to co-design pathways and innovation agendas so as to help them become climate resilient by 2030.

Within the Pathways2Resilience programme, climate resilience is defined as the ability to anticipate, prepare for, and respond to hazardous events, trends, or disturbances related to climate. The programme will allocate €21 million across 100 regions and communities via two call cycles to support the development of their resilience pathways and innovation agendas.

To achieve this, an Expression of Interest campaign has been launched, helping regions and communities understand how they can show their interest in applying for funding to accelerate their transformation towards climate resilience.

The Expression of Interest process enables regions to demonstrate their motivation, willingness, and capacity to apply to the Pathways2Resilience programme, while also allowing them to share their adaptation challenges, barriers, and support needs.

Pathways2Resilience hosted a live webinar on the Expression of Interest process on 9 June 2023. The webinar had over 100 attendees, spanning across all of Europe, as well as from the United Kingdom, and it was led by Heidi Johansson, ERRIN, and Dr Fernando Diaz Lopez, Climate-KIC. The video is still available for those who are interested in learning more.

Perhaps you are a representative of a region currently in talks with stakeholders and policy makers about what could be your next steps in handling the consequences of climate change, and more specifically so, how to be active rather than re-active. If that is the case, then head on over to the recording of the webinar to learn more about the application process. A Q&A is already available on the Pathways2Resilience website, and is updated regularly.

If you are passionate about climate resilience and adaptation, make sure that you connect with, and follow Pathways2Resilience on LinkedIn and Twitter to not miss anything. Over the next six months, the programme will be launching two calls for applications (November/December 2023), with a launch event scheduled for November 2023. A Policy Communications Pack is also set to be released soon!

LGI is thrilled to be part of this exciting programme, and we look forward to contributing to how Pathways2Resilience will advance an innovative and transformative approach to strengthen climate resilience.

Background information

Launched in January 2023, Pathways2Resilience supports the Mission on Adaptation to Climate Change, proposing a systemic innovation and capability-driven approach to strengthen climate resilience more efficiently across regions, communities and their ecosystems.

Pathways2Resilience will do so via the following objectives:

• Mobilise regional interests and networks to leverage political commitment towards the Mission Adaptation, elevating the ambition and capability of regional public administrations and connecting innovation agendas.
• Generate wider engagement of citizens and diverse stakeholders in the co-creation of transformative climate resilience pathways.
• Facilitate learning and capability development within and across network regional partners.
• Enhance enabling conditions, including funding and financing, to test systemic innovative solutions.

Coordinated by EIT Climate-KIC, Pathways2Resilience is an interdisciplinary consortium that incorporates the knowledge, expertise, and input of 14 partner organisations, representing 10 different countries.

• • Regional network organisations – to engage and build a movement of Mission Adaptation regions and communities. (ERRIN, ICLEI, CKIC, Regions4, RCCC). ​
  • Technical expert organisations and designers of a transformative adaptation approach – providing the services to design pathways and innovation agendas to transform across KCS. (CKIC, Deltares, Tecnalia, IIASA, IIED Europe, ICLEI, Regions4, LGI, GIB)​
  • Adaptation finance experts – providing the services and latest state-of-the-art thinking on how regions can finance the adaptation ambitions for long-lasting impact.  (AUEB, PWA, LGI, GIB)​
  • Learning and capability building specialists – to support regional cohorts in building resilience capabilities along their journeys towards a climate resilient future. (CKIC, IIED Europe, ICLEI, RCCC, Regions4, GIB)​
  • Monitoring and innovation impact partners – to design an impact framework for benchmarking and assessing regional resilience maturity. (PPMI, IIED Europe, CKIC)