CASCADE final conference: Climate Risk Preparedness Toolbox for cities and municipalities launched
Caused by climate change, the risk of unpredictable weather events such as droughts, floods, forest fires and extreme temperatures increased. To make the Baltic Sea Region cities and towns more resilient, in 2019 the CASCADE project brought together civil protection specialists and climate change adaptation experts to identify and measure such risks as well as to give recommendations on how to respond to them in the most effective way.
The CBSS Secretariat was a partner in the project, responsible for organising a region-wide policy dialogue on the UN Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction – the global plan to prevent new risks and reduce existing risks of hazards such as droughts, wildfires and floods (click here to read an interview with Valdur Lahtvee and Katie Goldie-Ryder from the CBSS Secretariat about their experiences in the project). Two years later, the project is at its final stage, and the results of this cooperation are now available both to the national governments for adjusting their national strategies, and to the cities and municipalities around the Baltic Sea, for training the officials accordingly. The partners prepared a curriculum for city planners so they could include the climate risks into their local risk assessment strategies. The Climate Risk Preparedness Toolbox launched during the final conference of the project on 8th of June 2021, summarises the results of the project and consists of simple, easy-to-use checklists, templates, and useful examples for:
- Assessing climate change-related risks and threats in your community
- Carrying out an integrated climate risk assessment, based on scientific methods and best practices
- Training your personnel on this using our training materials on increasing capacity and preparedness
- Learning how others have approached climate change based on a selection of case studies and recommendations
- Browsing a collection of other useful links on the topic
The CBSS Secretariat activities in assisting the BSR countries implementing the UN Sendai Framework in Disaster Risk Reduction were recognised by the UNDRR.
“I cannot emphasise enough the importance of the work the CBSS does in the Baltic Sea Region regionalising the Sendai Framework… We would like to encourage the CBSS to continue regional cooperation around local resilience!”
Andrew Bower, UN DRR Regional office for Europe and Central Asia, keynote speech at the CASCADE final conference
The partners are currently in discussions on how to utilise the momentum, created in the consortium to promote the tools developed in the project and to continue supporting the Baltic Sea Region in making its cities and towns more resilient.
Watch the whole conference here.