Supporting energy and climate adaptation policies (SECAP)

The overall objective of SECAP is to foster the sustainable development of cross-border territories by promoting low-carbon strategies for all types of territory, in particular urban areas, creating relevant adaptation and mitigation measures (Axis 2 priority 4e). The project fosters the cross-border sharing of tools, methodologies and databases to generate positive effects on local planning. Thus the project integrates both mitigation and adaptation within a comprehensive approach for local planning of climate policies and measures.

The project provides guidelines, tools, and databases, as well as practical support to the municipalities of the project area (Friuli Venezia Giulia and Veneto in Italy, Goriška, Gorenjska and Ljubljana Urban Region in  Slovenia) for the implementation of sustainable energy and climate adaptation policies, which are reflected in the transaction from Sustainable Energy Action Plans (SEAPs) to Sustainable Energy and Climate Action Plan (SECAPs), following the framework of the Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy. The main climate change mitigation objective of the project is to improve energy planning by local operators, focusing on energy saving, renewable energy, reduction of CO2 emissions and mitigation measures related to climate change.

On the adaptation policy side, the project's transnational strategic approach is expected to foster the development of timely adaptation measures and the consistency between different sectors and levels of governance. The project's hope is that such an approach will increase the understanding of the impacts of climate change and facilitate the implementation of policies for optimal adaptation, through regional and local strategies which are consistent with national ones. The partnership includes national and regional governmental agencies, and this is expected to ensure that choices will be shared with governance bodies, guaranteeing the coherence of the strategy with national and regional action plans and development policies.

Within the project, an innovative and scientifically supported risk and vulnerability assessment (RVA) approach was developed, easy to use, and reproducible for most municipalities. The RVA approach offers the possibility to conduct practical and whole spectrum assessments for climate threats, exposed elements, and vulnerabilities to every potential impact, facilitating the decision-making process by local administrations in regards to climate change adaptation.

ECCA 2021 - Climate Adaptation solutions video -SECAP