The webinar brought together experts and local authorities from across the Baltic Sea Region to explore integrated strategies for climate adaptation and disaster risk reduction. It was opened by Agnieszka Ilola, Head of Secretariat at the UBC Sustainable Cities, and Kaspars Vārpiņš, Chairman of the UBC Safe Cities, outlining the priorities for local authorities to increase climate resilience.
To create a common understanding of the complex topic, Antti Mäkelä, Senior Scientist at the Finnish Meteorological Institute, introduced the significance and interconnections of the local climate resilience and disaster risk management.
“There is no going back to good, or past climate.”
— Antti Mäkelä, Finnish Meteorological Institute
The climate trends are clear: we are facing a fast evolution of increasing temperatures, and there is no going back to the ‘good’ climate of the past. Despite the uncertainty of how the emissions will further evolve – some risks are not in our hands, – local authorities need to address risk management, build capacities, check the already existing knowledge and tools, and consistently engage in the dialogue on different levels within the society.
The strategic approach to climate resilience was further explored in the presentation by Andriy Martynenko, Adviser at the Council of the Baltic Sea States. While climate change is losing is political prominence due to other, more prominent and imminent crises in the region, what this subject need is the change of the optics: climate adaptation is also about local preparedness and resilience. This subject needs a holistic approach to be effectively addressed and politically supported – and the examples from projects like CASCADE or SecureKids demonstrate how this could work in practice, on both the level of international action and the community preparedness on the ground.
"One important thing was cross-sectoral collaboration and being involved in international networks - that is how in 2017 we got information that climate adaptation is something we need to start thinking about."
— Annika Kettunen, Climate Change Adaptation Planning Officer, City of Tampere
The webinar featured a showcase of strategic and cross-sectoral approaches from three forerunning cities: Erik Glaas, Climate Adaptation Strategist at Gävle Municipality, Annika Kettunen, Climate Change Adaptation Planning Officer at the City of Tampere, and Øyvind Hellang, Senior Researcher at NORCE Norwegian Research Centre, Kristiansand, explained how climate adaptation and disaster risk reduction activities are integrated into their work on a cross-sectoral basis with effective knowledge exchange.
In addition to the webinar presentations, we interviewed the cities to further support other local authorities in increasing climate resilience!
City interviews
How is climate adaptation aligned with other policies and strategies in your city, and how to create ownership of these actions across city departments?
ANNIKA KETTUNEN, CITY OF TAMPERE | In Tampere, adaptation is integrated into many other processes: it has to happen in every sector in the everyday work and all decisions. One important tool to create ownership of adaptation actions in city departments is the update process of our Climate Neutral Tampere Roadmap. It is updated every second year, and the measures come from the departments based on concrete needs. Sometimes the need might be to get more information on what the departments possibly could do, with can also result in f.ex. organizing a lecture or inviting an expert in the field to the meeting.
ERIK GLAAS, GÄVLE MUNICIPALITY | To create ownership and legitimacy in the organization to work actively with climate adaptation, the issue has initially been handled within a larger project with sector managers, CEOs from municipal companies and the municipal manager as a steering group, and department heads from all areas of operation in a reference group. This has provided a mandate to take decisions and make investments within the project. The broad group of competencies within the project has also enabled alignment with other steering documents that the participants are well aware of. In some cases, the climate adaptation strategy and action plan that is now being developed replaces previous steering documents that are then extinguished.
SIGURD PAULSEN AND THE TEAM OF THE KRISTIANSAND MUNICIPALITY | Climate change adaptation is included in the municipal master plan, on the top of the municipal plan hierarchy. In addition, the municipality has adopted a strategy and action plan for more detailed description of what to do to meet the future challenges with regard to climate changes. To create ownership of necessary actions, we think it is decisive with involvement and make relevant departments responsible when designing the measures. It is also important to gain necessary knowledge to know how to design sufficient actions.
How to secure the resources to implement climate adaptation plans?
ANNIKA KETTUNEN, CITY OF TAMPERE | The target must be in the strategy, the measures defined by the departments that can implement them, and the measures must be brought to annual plans of the departments to be followed.
ERIK GLAAS, GÄVLE MUNICIPALITY | Following the extreme rain that hit Gävle in August 2021, EUR 10 million was allocated to a local fund for climate adaptation investments distributed within the broader adaptation project. The funds have been used directly to finance investments in climate adaptation measures, but also indirectly as co-financing when seeking external funding from Swedish and EU funders.
SIGURD PAULSEN AND THE TEAM OF THE KRISTIANSAND MUNICIPALITY | It is important to hold relevant departments for implementation accountable, and to include the need of resources into the municipal budgeting process.
Could you highlight one-two things that are most important in efficient climate adaptation and disaster risk preparedness from your city perspective?
ANNIKA KETTUNEN, CITY OF TAMPERE | In every department which does the work that is critical to adaptation there should be someone who has it in their job description. For example, we have such persons in the comprehensive planning department, green areas and stormwater management department, and me in the development and coordination unit.
It’s also important to ensure an integrated approach. F.ex. stormwater management is part of the green areas planning department, which makes the implementation of nature-based solutions into green areas truly possible.
ERIK GLAAS, GÄVLE MUNICIPALITY | The first important thing is that there is an awareness of climate-related risks and what it means for the municipality's core tasks among colleagues throughout the organization. This opens-up the possibility of taking informed decisions and seeking collaboration with others. These colleagues also act as monitors, ensuring that climate adaptation is taken into account within the framework of other projects and activities. Another important thing is that employees have a mandate to spend time and resources on these issues.
SIGURD PAULSEN AND THE TEAM OF THE KRISTIANSAND MUNICIPALITY | In general, it is important to get a sufficient overview of the climate risks, make sufficient action plans to handle the future climate changes, implement the actions and monitor the process. We think it is important to integrate the work in the municipal steering system, to make sure the action plan is implemented.
This webinar served as a platform for local governments to explore actionable strategies, share knowledge and strengthen networks, ultimately contributing to the development of climate-proof and resilient urban environments in the Baltic Sea Region.