ClimEmpower Project

10/02/2025

A ClimEmpower Conference was held on February 6-7, 2025 in Croatia, organized by the Public Institution for Nature Protection in Osijek-Baranja County, one of the Croatian partners working on the CLimEmpower project. The conference gathered lecturers from various sectors, highlighting issues related to climate change. Besides the main topics about nature protection and agriculture in Osijek-Baranja County, other interesting topics like food production, permaculture, seed savers exchange, forest restoration, contemporary tracking devices used in agriculture, and even reproductive health were covered. The main goal was to draw attention to how serious the situation is due to climate change and to create possible solutions by exchanging experience and knowledge. During this two-day conference, many connections between the lecturers and participants were made, which can indeed contribute to the further development of ClimEmpower project and other fields, resulting in a mutual battle related to climate change adaptation and resilience.

05/12/2024

3rd ClimEmpower workshop "Make Your Own Sustainable Christmas Wreath" held on Friday, November 29, 2024

16/10/2024

The Public Institution for Nature Protection in Osijek-Baranja County attended the 18th annual meeting, where the experts for nature protection and conservation gather from all of the Croatian nature parks, national parks, and other public institutions that deal with nature protection on a regional scale. The meeting took place in one of Croatia's nature parks along the Adriatic Coast - Vransko jezero. Since one of the topics was climate change in protected areas, our colleagues from Javna ustanova za zaštitu prirode Osječko - baranjske županije presented and promoted the ClimEmpower project to all of the attendants of the meeting.

04/10/2024

The Public Institution for Nature Protection in Osijek-Baranja County, as one of the partners on the ClimEmpower project, celebrated International Drava Day 2024, since the Drava is one of the most important rivers in the county and in Europe. With climate change and the dissemination of the project in mind, most of the activities during this celebration focused on climate adaptation and resilience. Our main goal was to educate the public about nature protection, climate changes and how to adapt to these changes. Over 700 people and the media learned something about ClimEmpower and climate change that day.

12/09/2024

Stay tuned for more updates and check out our progress on the project website 👉 https://climempower.eu

12/09/2024

ClimEmpower team came together to review our progress on boosting regional climate change resilience.

Here’s what we focused on:
🔹 Understanding the context of our work
🔹 Pinpointing the challenges we face
🔹 Defining clear goals for the future

💡 The key takeaway: How can we overcome these challenges across our different pilot regions? This session was all about aligning our efforts and planning effective solutions. It’s exciting to see our team tackling climate resilience with determination!

Stay tuned for more updates and check out our progress on the project website 👉 https://climempower.eu

14/06/2024

Last week, the official Day of Osijek-Baranya County in Croatia was celebrated where the ongoing projects were presented, among others, the Project with a short message saying "The adaptation to climate change starts from each individual". Many participants visited this event and showed interest in the project, which we consider useful for the visibility of ClimEmpower.

Javna ustanova za zaštitu prirode Osječko - baranjske županije

03/06/2024

CoP Meetings story #4
(in alphabetical order)
https://climempower.eu/italy-cop-meetings/

Sicily, the largest island in Italy, encompasses an area of 25,832.39 square kilometres and a population of 4,782,457 inhabitants as of 2022. Significantly, Sicily’s regional gross domestic product (GDP) contributes 5% to the national GDP, primarily propelled by the key economic sectors: agriculture, industry, and tourism.

Sicily is increasingly susceptible to the adverse impacts of climate change, particularly evident in its urban area. Urban areas emerge as focal points of vulnerability, marked by heightened exposure to climate change-induced hazards. Instances of severe heat waves, exemplified by a noteworthy temperature of 48.8°C recorded in August 2021, as well as pluvial and coastal flooding events, evidenced by precipitation levels ranging from 150 to 300 millimetres in 2021, underscore the pronounced vulnerability of Sicily’s urban landscape to climate change. The magnitude and frequency of extreme temperatures and precipitation events have increased in recent years and are expected to further aggravate in the future.

The setting of the CoP in the Sicily region is characterized by involving institutional stakeholders, particularly, representatives of public entities at both the regional and metropolitan levels. To engage stakeholders effectively, it was decided to organize two informative meetings (November – December 2023) and a third meeting to start the official work of the CoP (February 2024).

The prioritized hazards identified by CoP stakeholders are Urban Flooding and Heat Waves.

In the image below you can find more information and the key points that have been identified:

14/05/2024

🌍📢 This June 5th, we celebrate I-CHANGE DAY! MAIA's partner project will host a data collection activity to explore how extreme events impact our neighbourhoods as part of the European Union’s Green Week and .

The eight Living Labs located in , , , , , , , and will be open with the aim of increasing understanding of , , and .

👉 Want to be part of it? Discover more in our link bio📲

14/05/2024

CoP Meetings story #3
(in alphabetical order)
https://climempower.eu/greece-cop-meetings/

Greece

The Region of Central Greece (Perifereia Stereas Elladas-PSTE) is the second largest administrative region in Greece in total area (15,549.31 km2), with a population of 555,960 inhabitants (5.2% of the country’s population), it accounts for 4.7% (€8.767bn) of the country’s GDP while the regional GDP per capita in PPS was €19,300 in 2018 (EU28 average €31,000). More than half of the region is composed by mountains, followed by lowland and semi-mountainous terrain.

The First Greek Cop meeting was held in the premises of the Prefecture of Central Greece in Lamia on 21/12/2023.

The meeting was divided into two parts. The first part CERTH and PSTE gave general presentations of the project. Stakeholders had also the opportunity to present themselves.

In the second part, a Human-Centred Design activity was implemented to collect initial feedback from the stakeholders regarding their perception of the risk based on their own experience, as well as available tools used to avoid or reduce the impact.

The hazards that were identified during the second part of the CoP are Fires, Floods, Drought, Temperature rise, Water pollution.

In the image below you can find more information and the key points that have been identified:

14/05/2024

02/05/2024

🌍 Save the Date for a Crucial Policy-Science Dialogue!

Join us on May 7, 2024, for an essential discussion on Supporting Adaptation Planning at the Regional Level by Connecting Knowledge to Policy Implementation.

🗓️ May 7, 2024
🕒 Time: 15:00 - 16:30 (CET)
📍 Where: Online
👩🏻‍💻Register in our link bio!

Open to Regions4, RegionsAdapt, MAIA consortium, and Scottish team members.

Explore strategies to bridge the gap between knowledge and policy in the face of escalating climate change impacts. Discuss ongoing projects, leverage climate finance effectively, define success criteria, and more.

Let's collaboratively steer regional adaptation strategies towards efficacy!

02/05/2024

📊Ya está disponible en el el último informe sobre Análisis de la en (estudio comarcal)👉 https://lajunta.es/4i92f

02/05/2024

CoP Meetings story #2
(in alphabetical order)

Cyprus

The Troodos area is situated in central Cyprus and covers around 137,000 hectares (1,370 square miles), which accounts for 45% of the total area of the Troodos Mountains and 15% of the total area of Cyprus. The area is divided into three districts – Nicosia, Paphos and Limassol – and ranges in altitude from 300 metres to the highest peak, Mount Olympus, which stands at 1,952 metres above sea level. The region comprises 110 communities with a total population of approximately 25,000. It combines significant geological interest with the unique natural environment of Troodos, a rich history of human settlement, and the local customs and traditions of the people.

To engage stakeholders effectively and gauge their interests and needs, a set of questionnaires was meticulously prepared and dispatched prior to the event. These questionnaires were crafted with dual objectives: firstly, to provide stakeholders with a glimpse into the topics to be discussed at the forthcoming meeting, and secondly, to enable the partners to gain deeper insights into the stakeholders’ expectations, needs, and proposed actions.

Attendees included a diverse representation from the public sector, underscoring the interest and potential impact of the initiative. The participants were drawn from a variety of sectors reflecting the inclusive approach and the broad spectrum of interests and expertise brought together for this occasion.

The hazards that were identified during the CoP meeting are Wildfires, Floods, Increasing of Temperature, Saharan dust, Drought.

In the image below you can find more information and the key points that have been identified:

22/04/2024

Partners from Croatia celebrated Earth Day and connected this important day with the project activities of the ClimEmpower project.🥳

18/04/2024

CoP Meetings story #1
(in alphabetical order)

CROATIA - Osijek-Baranja County

Osijek-Baranja County is one of the largest counties and is located in Eastern Croatia covering a surface of 4.149 km2, which makes up 7.3 % of the total area of the Republic of Croatia, having 305.032 inhabitants, according to the last population census. It is mainly a lowland surrounded by rivers (especially two very important rivers – the Drava and the Danube), wetlands, and forests (covering 87,885 ha), which created an abundance of reserves, parks, lakes, and ponds that later became protected areas, declared by the Government. Due to this ecosystem, the agricultural land is also extremely fertile, making this county one of the most important agricultural areas in Croatia. It has 212,673.75 ha of arable land; therefore the main economic branch has been food production and agriculture for many decades. With the development of a rich natural heritage and fertile arable land, eco-tourism, wine tourism, rural tourism, family farms offering homemade products, accommodation in authentic households and many other forms of tourism and activities have developed, from which the local communities have certain benefits.

Before holding the 1st CoPs meeting, research was done in the nearby area within Osijek-Baranja County so that all the fields of interests and sectors are covered.

The first CoPs meeting of OBZ and OBZ-AZP in Croatia was held on November 6, 2023.

The main hazards identified during the CoP that severely threaten agriculture and biodiversity are – in the first place, droughts (35%), followed by floods (30%), heat waves (25%) and hail (10%), which lead to a reduction of food production, desiccation of farming land and wetlands and the disappearing of habitats for many animal and plant species.

In the image below you can find more information and the key points that have been identified: