Invest4Nature was represented at this year’s Climate Alliance International Conference, which took place from October 18th to October 20th in Modena, Italy. Apart from Climate Alliance, the city network of Energy Cities was also present at the conference, with had more than 400 registered participants from over 40 countries.
The workshop „Rewriting the adaptation narrative”, organised in the frame of Invest4Nature in collaboration with the IB-Green project, aimed at working together on the adaptation challenges that the city of Modena is currently facing. In May 2023, the Emilia Romagna region had to manage an important flooding event, during which the amount of rain normally falling in 6 months precipitated down in just 1 week, leading to flooding in 32 municipalities of the region. Only a few months later, the Emilia Region faced extreme heat waves in summer 2023, with temperature reaching 39,2° C in Bologna or 37,8° C in Modena. The city of Modena urgently needs to adapt to face those extreme weather events.
In small groups, participants developed ideas on which adaptation measures could help two neighbourhoods of Modena: one example neighbourhood, Villaggio Artigiano, was of particular interest. The district, built after World War II, was the first model of industrial site in Italy. The area sits in-between the city and the countryside and ties together life and work, know-how and industry, production chain and local community. Extremely sealed, the district now faces a high risk of extreme heat. Suggestions for Villaggio Artigiano included nature-based solutions such as access to water and vegetation, reducing sealed surfaces, water reservoirs for trees as well as rainwater management. One main suggestion was to enhance public-private dialogue by organising roundtables of business-owners, moderated by municipalities, where innovative ideas could be proposed and discussed directly between stakeholders.
Further, Climate Alliance represented the project at a stand and established contacts to municipal climate change coordinators who are interested in the topic of adaptation. Interested participants were asked to put down their names for activities and news concerning Climate Alliance’s Working Group on Adaptation, for which a next event is scheduled next year.
The conference ended with the presentation of the Modena Declaration. Learn more about it in this article.