The LIFE SHARA project organizes today and on May 20 the second training on adaptation to climate change at the local level aimed at local managers.

The LIFE SHARA project organizes today and on May 20 the second training on adaptation to climate change at the local level aimed at local managers. A free online training whose objectives are to facilitate the integration of climate change into municipal planning and provide an update of knowledge about it, while providing local managers with a set of useful and practical resources on adaptation to climate change for the development of local adaptation strategies.

In addition, the training will serve to disseminate among local authorities the commitment to action for adaptation to climate change in line with initiatives such as the Spanish Network of Cities for Climate and the European Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy.

Sonia Hernández, deputy deputy director of Urban Policies of the Ministry of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda; Valvanera Ulargui, Director General of the Spanish Office for Climate Change of the Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge, and Elena Pita, Director of the Biodiversity Foundation of the Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge were in charge of inaugurating the course.

Sonia Hernández highlighted the value of the Spanish Urban Agenda to link different areas and make towns and cities sustainable and welcoming places of coexistence . “If we act in our towns and cities, we will be able to achieve the climate change targets of international agencies. We cannot talk about sustainable cities or towns if we do not take into account the environments in which they are and without them developing their local action plans, which include climate change adaptation plans,” he explained.

For his part, Valvanera Ulargui stressed the role of local managers in promoting adaptation to climate change. “You will be able to integrate the new climate scenarios into all your work and that is why we have launched the new National Plan for Adaptation to Climate Change, which seeks to anticipate impacts and provide an adaptive response to them. A Plan aimed at action with a territorial and social approach and that seeks to bring the citizen closer to these risks and impacts”. Ulargui stressed that the Plan seeks to link up with the Urban Agenda and introduce all the agents involved in risk management, also involving the building sector.

The director of the Biodiversity Foundation, Elena Pita, insisted on the link between nature and the quality of life in towns and cities. “Nature plays a prominent role in towns and cities, improving air quality, reducing the heat island effect and having a positive effect on biodiversity, among others. Thus, nature-based solutions can have a positive impact on our well-being,” he said. “The challenge is to take action and do it now, and in this sense the LIFE SHARA project is working, in order to promote and increase resilience to climate change,” he added.

These sessions are aimed at municipal technicians (or those belonging to supra-municipal entities) interested in incorporating adaptation to climate change into urban planning and municipal projects.

The training will offer an overview of the phenomenon of climate change, analyse some of its scenarios and explain how to start the adaptation process at the local level. The LIFE SHARA project, within the framework of which this course is developed, will also be presented. In addition, different local experiences of adaptation to climate change will be discussed and two practical workshops will be held so that students can delve into the diagnosis of risks and vulnerabilities to climate change and adaptation measures to it.

The two training sessions, each lasting four hours, will give the right to obtain a certificate issued by the Spanish Office for Climate Change (OECC).

The holding of these training sessions is aligned with one of the objectives of the LIFE SHARA project, which is to train and raise awareness about adaptation to climate change.

Do you want to know more about the LIFE SHARA project? Here You have all the information.