Financing Cities Adaptation to Climate Change through Public-Private Partnerships and Corporate Social Responsibility (LIFE CITYAdaP3)

More than 10,000 municipalities across Europe have joined the Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy (CoM). Of these, more than half have submitted action plans by 2022, including adaptation targets. However, these efforts do not deliver tangible results unless they are accompanied by adaptation actions on the ground. Local authorities identify the lack of financial resources as the main obstacle to effective implementation of adaptation planning (Action Plan, Climate Change Partnership, EU Urban Agenda).

To remove this obstacle, the main objectives of LIFE CITYAdaP3 are to:

1. Involve the EU private sector in financing urban adaptation in two ways: i) through the development of public-private cooperation programmes between companies and local authorities; ii) through the integration of climate change adaptation into Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) issues.
2. Enhance the Covenant of Mayors through the implementation of Sustainable Energy and Climate Action Plans (SECAPs).

Key measures to fulfill these objectives include: 

• Drafting of public-private partnership (PPP) agreement models, transferable to other EU cities, to enable financing of climate change adaptation by the private sector. Models for Spanish municipalities, Italian municipalities and a more general model adaptable to other EU municipalities have been produced. 
• Carrying out adaptation actions in 4 EU municipalities to demonstrate how to deal with urban heat island effect, flooding and landslides and mitigating the economic, environmental and social costs of climate impacts. See the pilot actions and technical information about their design. 
• Promoting Green Infrastructures and Nature-Based Solutions in the definition of adaptation actions.
• Involving the private sector in the implementation of Action Plans. See the guide to climate change adaptation for business in the framework of corporate social responsibility. 

Companies can learn about how to implement CSR policies, tools to implement their CSR strategies and about how to develop and measure their environmental commitments by joining the e-learning course developed with the project.

Municipal stakeholders have been involved in the monitoring of the SECAPs, and will be part of the definition of future adaptation action (using a multi-criteria assessment tool developed by the project). Information about the tool will be soon published on the website. 

• Replicating the model in other EU municipalities to involve the private sector in urban adaptation. The project team offers support so other municipalities can replicate the approach. 
• Improving knowledge base through a quantitative analysis of the social, economic and environmental benefits of implementing adaptation actions for citizens and local companies.
• Monitoring adaptation indicators to assess the performance of pilot actions in terms of resilience and improvement of living conditions.
• Improving public awareness on the importance of climate change adaptation and mitigation.
• Disseminating technical information to foster results' uptake to other EU stakeholders.