Applications are open for the Mediterranean Climate Change Adaptation Awards. It is an award competition that focuses on promoting and rewarding exemplary climate change adaptation actions and encourage stakeholders in the Mediterranean to adapt to climate change.

Criteria

This Mediterranean Climate Change Adaptation Awards competition is aimed at public stakeholders, members of the private sector and NGOs which are taking action and developing solutions to adapt the Mediterranean regions to the changing climate :

• Local authority
• National body
• Public university
• NGO in partnership with a local public stakeholder
• Companies or members of the private sector in partnership with a local public stakeholder

This competition concerns the regions included within the Mediterranean bioclimatic zone, i.e. part or all of the following countries: Albania, Algeria, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Cyprus, Egypt, France, Greece, Israel, Italy, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Macedonia, Malta, Montenegro, Morocco, Palestinian National Authority, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey.

Benefits

Candidates participating in the Mediterranean Climate Change Adaptation Awards will receive

• Tailored support from the partners (study tour, meetings with technical and financial partners)
• Invitations to an international workshop (ECCA 2021)
• International promotion of your actions (press communications, dedicated publication, short movie)

Categories

• Category 1 “Resilient facilities and infrastructure”: This category refers to infrastructural approaches comprising development or construction-based measures calling on engineering services to make buildings, infrastructure and public amenities more resilient to climate events. This category hence covers actions involving direct investments contributing to the design and/or renovation of buildings, public amenities, infrastructure and networks to adapt them to climate change. These may include: urban development schemes aiming to improve summertime thermal comfort or rainwater management, integrated coastal zone management, building adaptation measures, and measures to enhance the robustness of networks and infrastructure and their ability to withstand climate events.
• Category 2 “Preservation of ecosystems and nature-based solutions”: This category refers to approaches that use the functions and services provided by ecosystems and that protect natural resources (water, forests, fish stocks, etc.). They thus contribute to boosting the resilience of ecosystems and the large water cycle – terrestrial, aquatic and marine. This category hence covers actions that support the functions of ecosystem services, upon which numerous human activities depend (agriculture, fishing, forestry, tourism, flood protection, access to water resources, etc.), by protecting, restoring and/or improving the resilience of natural resources (water). These may include: urban heat reduction measures drawing on ecosystems (ground, water, vegetation), development schemes that foster ecological continuity, actions to manage demand for drinking water or mobilise alternative resources, actions contributing to adapting agricultural and forestry practices to climate change, etc.
• Category 3 “Designing, implementing and monitoring public policies”: This category refers to non-structural approaches involving designing and implementing policies, procedures, planning resources, and incentives and disseminating information with a view to reducing vulnerability. This category hence covers actions helping, on the one hand, to improve knowledge or inform/raise awareness/encourage/change individual and collective behaviour and, on the other hand, promote changes to governance and regulatory frameworks (urban planning in particular), with a view to preparing all stakeholders for climate change. These may include: regional research programmes, proactive approaches to climate change, actions aiming to train/raise awareness/obtain buy-in from regional stakeholders and decision-makers, incentives and/or regulatory measures, actions aiming to incorporate climate change into public policies, etc.

Competition Rules