ClimaResponse Project Kicks Off to Strengthen Climate Resilience in the Baltic Sea Region

The new ClimaResponse project brings together municipalities, researchers and regional organisations to strengthen climate resilience across the Baltic Sea Region.

To address the increasing climate-related challenges faced by municipalities and communities, the ClimaResponse project will officially launch with its kick-off meeting on 1–2 April 2025 in Stockholm, Sweden.

This new initiative – formally titled “Responsive Local Action for Climate Change Adaptation and Disaster Risk Reduction” – aims to enhance climate resilience across the Baltic Sea Region (BSR) by equipping local and regional authorities with practical solutions to prepare for and adapt to climate risks.

“Municipalities are on the front lines of climate resilience. They manage most of the local infrastructure that protects us from extreme weather – be it snow, floods or heat,” says Uģis Zanders, adviser and the project’s manager at the Council of the Baltic Sea States (CBSS). “Through ClimaResponse, we are equipping municipalities with the tools and knowledge they need to build safer, better prepared, and climate-resilient communities.”

Led by the CBSS and co-funded by the Interreg Baltic Sea Region Programme, ClimaResponse brings together twelve project partners from across the BSR, including municipalities, research institutions, and regional organisations, to address the increasing climate-related challenges faced by local and regional authorities, supporting them in:

  • Developing local climate resilience strategies to ensure cities and regions can effectively respond to climate risks.
  • Enhancing cross-border collaboration between municipalities, researchers, and civil society on climate resilience.
  • Piloting climate adaptation solutions to test new methods for risk reduction and resilience-building.
  • Launching awareness campaigns to support municipalities in localising and implementing climate adaptation strategies.
  • Creating the Digital Planning Platform for Climate Resilience, a comprehensive online knowledge-sharing tool that provides step-by-step guidance on integrating climate adaptation and disaster risk reduction (DRR) into local governance.

ClimaResponse builds on previous regional initiatives, including the ClimaLoc project, which supported municipalities in integrating climate adaptation into local governance and spatial planning. One key outcome was the Handbook on Local Climate Adaptation and Resilience, providing municipalities with practical guidance on climate risk assessment, stakeholder engagement, and financing adaptation measures. The project also draws on the experiences of the CASCADE project, which focused on climate-related disaster risk reduction.

The ClimaResponse project will run from March 2025 to December 2028 with a total budget of 3 million euros, co-financed by the EU-backed Interreg Baltic Sea Region Programme, contributing over 2.3 million euros.

The ClimaResponse project is led by the Council of the Baltic Sea States (based in Sweden) and brings together Åbo Akademi University (Sweden), Association Klaipeda Region (Lithuania), Gävle Municipality (Sweden), Lääne-Harju Municipality (Estonia), Latvian Association of Local and Regional Governments (Latvia), Mid Sweden University (Sweden), Municipality of Kristiansand (Norway), “Pomorskie in the European Union” Association (Poland), Stockholm Environment Institute Tallinn Centre (Estonia), The Association of Estonian Cities and Municipalities (Estonia), and the Union of the Baltic Cities Sustainable Cities Commission (based in Finland) as project partners.