The conference „Financing climate action at local regional level: funding opportunities for the adaptation challenge“, organized by Commission for the Environment, Climate Change and Energy, took place in Brussels, at the European Committee of the Regions, on September 19th 2017.
One of the main challenges for local and regional authorities, when it comes to the climate and energy actions, is insufficient financial resources. Even though there are various climate finance instruments that exist on international and national level available to local and regional authorities in the European Union, primary obstacle on the way of the regional and local authorities to benefit from those instruments is often lack of awareness, followed by insufficient administrative capacity and technical knowledge, as well as budgetary, regulatory and political constraint.
The conference started with opening remarks of Mr Karl-Heinz Lambert, President of European Committee of the Regions, and many experts on climate change shared there insights on the matter as well as their experiences in sustainable development of cities and regions. At the conference there were provided with the information on a number of financing instruments and funding opportunities that can help cities and regions to implement climate adaptation actions and, at the same time, improve their adaptive potential. This was also a great opportunity to gain knowledge on how to recognize and seize the opportunities in order to respond properly on the climate change adaptation challenge i.e. to mitigate the climate change and to adapt to it.
More information about the conference can be found on CoR website.