WEBSTIVAL 3 | Together Towards Resilience: Communities at the Forefront
The third and final CLIMAAX Webstival took place online on 18–19 November 2025. Moderated by EURADA, the event brought together key actors from across the project and beyond to showcase financial support to third parties, share lessons learned, and spark new connections. The speakers highlighted both policy-oriented and technical outcomes of the project, enriched with real stories from local communities as well as contributions from sister projects working on climate resilience, mitigation, and adaptation.
November 18
The first day shed light on the policy-oriented aspects of the CLIMAAX project. A series of high-level presentations and engaging discussions explored the alignment between climate risk assessment, EU Climate Adaptation policies, and funding mechanisms. The day began with an Introduction to the project by Frederiek Sperna Weiland (Deltares – Project Coordinator), setting the stage for the discussions to follow. A Keynote address was delivered by Sophie Berger (Policy Officer, Mission on Adaptation to Climate Change of the European Commission), highlighting how CLIMAAX is a key project for the Adaptation Mission and for climate adaptation in the EU. Furthermore, Daniel Sempere (UPC – Co-coordinator) presented a dedicated session on “Empowering local action for climate adaptation in Europe“.
A key highlight was the roundtable session “Bridging Projects, Strengthening Regions: Shared Tools for Climate Resilience” featuring speakers from the Mission Implementation Platform (Richard Smithers) and sister projects Pathways2Resilience (Thomas Koetz), TransformAr (Jan Cools), IMPETUS (Josep Pijuan), and NEVERMORE (Iván Ramos Diez). This session fostered an open dialogue on best practices emerging from these initiatives and explored opportunities for synergies to strengthen climate resilience across regions.
November 19
The second day delved into the technical dimensions of the CLIMAAX project, emphasising tools, data, and collaboration that have powered implementation across Europe. The day opened with an inspiring Keynote address by Richard Smithers (Director of the Mission Implementation Platform) on “Climate Risk Assessment: the importance of what is assessed and how it is assessed for accelerating adaptation“. In Technical Session 1, Christopher Polster (ECMWF) presented “Connecting Tools and Experience in the CLIMAAX Handbook,” providing a guided overview of practical resources developed through the project. The Technical Session 2 featured Maurizio Mazzoleni (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam), who explored “Data-driven algorithms, Big Data, and methods for EWS and Climate Risk Assessment in Europe“, highlighting the use of Big Data manipulation within Climate-Informed Early Warning Systems (EWS).
To close the day, Fulvio Biddau (CMCC) led a session titled “From Collaboration to Impact: Advancing the CLIMAAX Community of Practice“, emphasising the strong collaborative spirit of the project and its ongoing legacy through the growing CoP.