"The Basque Country showcases some of its initiatives in Txingudi Bay"
We met representatives from twelve European regions during the Annual General Assembly of the European Regions4Climate (R4C) project in Irún
The Basque Country took advantage of the opportunity to showcase some of its initiatives in Txingudi Bay, aimed at the restoration of coastal wetlands and natural spaces, strengthening biodiversity and increasing resilience to risks associated with rising sea levels and flooding.
- Progress and experiences in areas such as coastal adaptation, water management, conservation of ecosystems and climate governance were shared.
- The technical visits provided an opportunity to see first-hand the restoration and renaturalisation work being carried out in Plaiaundi and Jaitzubia, which have become examples of nature-based adaptation. These initiatives are generating extremely valuable evidence to help understand how restored coastal ecosystems can help protect the coastline against extreme weather events, rising sea levels and other impacts of climate change.
This meeting strengthens collaboration between European regions to develop solutions to address climate challenges and implement them across different territories. It also highlights the contribution of participating organisations, including TECNALIA, to generate knowledge on climate vulnerability and risk, develop spatial analysis tools and define climate change adaptation strategies.
Analysis of climate risks
TECNALIA plays a cross-cutting role in the project. On the one hand, it leads the analysis of climate risk across the twelve participating regions and, on the other hand, it coordinates the monitoring strategy to assess the effectiveness of the adaptation measures implemented. Furthermore, it helps to establish the scientific base to validate these solutions.
It also coordinates the Faster Adaptation group of regions, made up of the Basque Country, Southern Aquitaine, Tuscany and the Azores, and participates in activities related to the assessment of innovation in the solutions developed and the integration of climate adaptation into regional planning policies.
- In the final phase of the project, the interventions in the participating regions will be completed and their effectiveness assessed, along with a second climate risk assessment.
- Furthermore, lessons learnt will be drawn from the project to serve as a reference for other European regions when planning and developing large-scale investment projects for climate change adaptation, helping to accelerate their implementation.