13–15 November, 2019: Bratislava
Mitigation and adaptation measures in national and international contexts were the subject of the Climate Change 2019 Conference, organised by the Ministry of Environment of the Slovak Republic and the Slovak Environment Agency in Bratislava, Slovakia.
The conference featured a line-up of high-level speakers from diverse international, European and national institutions, bringing together a very interesting mix of expertise, knowledge and backgrounds in the audience.
An important conference message focused on how we, as humankind, need to aim for the best scenario, but must be prepared to cope with the worst. As such, the measures the European Union and its Member States must enforce are categorized into two types: mitigation – combating further changes in climate; and adaptation – being well prepared for a changing climate.
The conference themes were very interesting, ranging from a field-trip to global climate challenges on the first day, issues of financing and ongoing activities, and actions on a European, national- and sub-national scale right down to city-level. Both mitigation and adaptation efforts were featured throughout the event.
I was invited to deliver two talks focusing on insights from the work of PLACARD – in particular, the preliminary results of the project, our findings from the European Climate Change Adaptation Conference 2019 (ECCA 2019) in Lisbon, Portugal, and insights into the foresight work of our project. In addition, I had the opportunity to present the work of the EUSALP Action Group 8, which aims to improve risk management and better manage climate change, including the prevention of major natural risks. I also introduced the recently developed Natural hazards under climate change – Preparedness check for municipalities for Austria. The questions raised after my presentations and during the breaks demonstrated how relevant and interesting the subjects were, and clearly pinpoint the need to implement adaptation actions, thus increasing resilience and building adaptive capacity.