Scenarios for resilience and climate adaptation strategies in Tenerife (Canary Islands): Three pathways towards 2040

A participatory scenario building process for small island resilience is carried out for the Tenerife Island (Canary Islands, Spain). The plot of the scenarios is based on institutional analyses and participatory techniques where key local stakeholders and citizens were engaged. A press analysis was done in order to identify the main narratives regarding the current level of resilience and its potentialities in the future, as well as to identify the stakeholders involved in the discourse. Meanwhile, in-depth interviews, questionnaires and focus groups were carried out to engage the stakeholders and local citizens in the exploration of futures scenarios for resilience in Tenerife. The scenarios brought out three potential pathways for 2040. The first scenario prolongs the current business as usual situation where the island may be defined as highly vulnerable to external shocks, especially due to its high external dependency on food and energy production, as well as the need for energy allocated to water desalination. The second scenario relies on an active local community that encourages increasing rates of local food production and a 100% renewable energy system such that desalination may no longer depend on fossil fuels. Lastly, the third scenario depicts a pathway where several active groups of people engages in building resilience without the umbrella of local governments, due to politicians are no longer seen as part of the solution, but part of the problem. Now, collaborative community networks in bioagriculture, fog-water collection, and cooperative-based renewable energy production become increasingly important. Findings show that resilience is understood as the reinforcement of the nexus between water-energy-food sovereignty that might imply a change in the local economic model such that poverty can be reduced and climatic shocks can be buffered.JRC.E.1-Disaster Risk Managemen

Covenant of Mayors: key criteria for adaptation to climate change in local plans

Global warming has been stated to be unequivocal and human influenced. The emissions and atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases have increased to a degree that they are producing disturbances to the world climatic system. Several climate change impacts have occurred, while others will occur or will be intensified in the future. Ocean acidification, sea-level rise and extreme weather events are some of the projected impacts which, in addition, might have negative effects on the environment, society and the economy. These effects need to be addressed in order to reduce vulnerability to climatic hazards by means of climate change adaptation planning. However, adaptation is a rather unknown topic for many cities that have been focusing more on climate change mitigation. The new Covenant of Mayors (CoM), launched in 2015, includes adaptation to climate change as one of the three main pillars of local action towards 2050: mitigation, adaptation and secure affordable and sustainable access to Energy. The covenant signatories share a common vision to 2050 based on: — Decarbonised territories, thus contributing to keeping average global warming well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels, in line with the international climate agreement reached at COP 21 in Paris in December 2015. — More resilient territories, thus preparing for the unavoidable adverse impacts of climate change. — Universal access to secure, sustainable and affordable energy services for all, thus enhancing quality of life and improving energy security. The JRC, as technical and scientific support actor should assure the CoM soundness and provide guidance to support climate change adaptation planning and implementation to signatory cities. The aim of this report is to stablish the rationale behind the essential requirements for successful adaptation in the frame of the CoM, based on literature review and Joint Research Centre’s knowledge on climate change adaptation. The results of this report highlight the need for identification of current and future climatic hazards, an inventory of critical infrastructure, active stakeholder and citizen participation, maladaptation avoidance, and an estimation of adaptation action costs.JRC.E.1-Disaster Risk Managemen

Focus groups desarrollados en Tenerife para la elaboración de escenarios de adaptación al cambio climático: transcripciones completas

Tenerife ha venido registrando no sólo un aumento general de la temperatura media anual de 1,5° C en el último siglo (en el Parque Nacional del Teide), sino también un incremento en la frecuencia e intensidad de las olas de calor. La estabilidad atmosférica producida por la llegada de estas olas de calor, junto a las emisiones industriales y de diferentes medios de transporte, ha venido favoreciendo la concentración de contaminantes, superando los límites establecidos. Del mismo modo, se ha venido registrando también aumentos en la llegada de aire sahariano del norte de África, especialmente en invierno. Tanto las olas de calor, como el polvo sahariano y la contaminación atmosférica generan impactos en los ecosistemas y población locales. Cambios en la distribución de los ecosistemas e incendios forestales parecen ser los impactos más relevantes en el medio ambiente. Por otra parte, la salud de las personas se ve también afectada por estas amenazas, tanto en términos de mortalidad (especialmente relacionado con las olas de calor) como de morbilidad (derivado de las olas de calor y la contaminación del aire, tanto natural como antropogénica). Los problemas existentes derivados de dichas amenazas, hacen necesaria la exploración de políticas públicas que favorezcan la adaptación a las mismas. En este trabajo se presentan los resultados obtenidos en tres sesiones de focus group que tuvieron lugar a lo largo de la Isla en Noviembre de 2016, con el objetivo de involucrar a la población local en la búsqueda de acciones que permitan la adaptación al creciente calor, la llegada de aire sahariano y la contaminación del aire. En este informe se ofrecen las trascripciones de lo expresado en dichos focus group por los ciudadanos que decidieron participar en los mismos. Los focus group se realizaron en los municipios de San Cristóbal de La Laguna, La Orotava e Icod de los Vinos. Uno de los principales resultados obtenidos es que la población local percibe el problema no como una cuestión de adaptación al cambio climático, sino de resiliencia insular frente a shocks externos, sean estos ambientales, políticos o económicos. Estos resultados serán utilizados para la elaboración de escenarios de resiliencia para la isla de Tenerife.JRC.E.1-Disaster Risk Managemen

Covenant of Mayors’ Annual Report

In this report we have analysed the submission of vulnerability risk assessments and adaptation actions of 40 European local authorities in the framework of the Covenant of Mayors. According to the information received from the signatories, Northern Europe and Central North Europe will face a multi-hazard scenario in the future, whereas Central Europe South and Southern Europe are already facing multi-hazard events. Hazardous events are expected to intensify in all regions. Climate hazards are likely to impact several municipal sectors, especially “land use planning”. Floods, extreme heat, landslides, extreme precipitation, and sea level rise are expected to influence land uses in most regions. Adaptation actions differ depending on the hazard tackled and the climate region considered. However, further “studies” is a common adaptation action proposed across all regions, pointing to the need for additional assessments. Not surprisingly, actions with a large infrastructure component like flood protection systems appear as the most costly action type. Lastly, a range of remaining gaps have been identified in the analysis, and need careful attention, such as improvement of stakeholder and citizen engagement, improvement of planning actions (which includes reducing the inconsistencies between the risk and vulnerability assessment and the actions proposed), and better address the risk of implementing maladaptation actions.JRC.E.1-Disaster Risk Managemen

Covenant of Mayors for Climate & Energy: adaptation to climate change - Evaluation procedure and assessment criteria

The European Commission's Joint Research Centre checks the eligibility of the Sustainable Energy and Climate Action Plans (SECAP) and carries out an analysis of the information submitted by the EU Covenant of Mayors signatories. This quality control is carried out by means of a set of assessment criteria that contributes to guaranteeing the credibility and reliability of the whole Covenant of Mayors initiative. The evaluation criteria are divided in five sub-components: compliance with the time frame, completeness, coherence, quantification, and progress. Only the mandatory criteria can be used to decide on the eligibility of the SECAP. The remaining evaluation criteria are only analysed to formulate recommendations to the signatories.JRC.E.1-Disaster Risk Managemen

Intraventricular neurocysticercosis in a migrant from Honduras

We report in Madrid (Spain) a case of intraventricular neurocysticercosis in a migrant from Choluteca (Honduras) confirmed by epidemiological, radiological and microbiological criteria.S

How to develop a Sustainable Energy Access and Climate Action Plan (SEACAP) in Sub-Saharan Africa

The Covenant of Mayors in Sub-Saharan Africa (CoM SSA) supports local authorities in Sub-Saharan Africa in the climate challenge and in their efforts in ensuring access to clean energy. It is the "regional covenant" of the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate & Energy (GCoM). Under the CoM SSA, local authorities are invited to make a voluntarily political commitment to implement climate and energy actions in their communities and agree on a long-term vision to tackle 3 pillars, namely access to energy, climate mitigation and climate adaptation. In order to translate the political commitment into practical measures, CoM SSA signatories commit to elaborating and implementing a Sustainable Energy Access and Climate Action Plan (SEACAP). This document has been prepared to assist Sub-Saharan Africa local authorities in preparing a Climate Action Plan. This document is part of the guiding materials developed to assist local governments in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) in preparing a climate action plan. The full set of guiding materials consists of: - "Guidebook: How to develop a Sustainable Energy Access and Climate Action Plan (SEACAP) in Sub-Saharan Africa" - Extended version; - Summary of the "Guidebook: How to develop a Sustainable Energy Access and Climate Action Plan (SEACAP) in Sub-Saharan Africa"; - "How to develop a SEACAP in Sub-Saharan Africa: short starting guide". It provides step-by-step guidance and examples of measures relevant for local authorities in Sub Saharan context.JRC.C.2-Energy Efficiency and Renewable

Guidebook 'How to develop a Sustainable Energy and Climate Action Plan (SECAP)'

The Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy (CoM) is an ambitious initiative for local climate and energy actions. This document provides signatories with a set of methodological principle, procedures and best practices to develop their SECAP. The Part 1 of this document relates to the SECAP process; while Part 2gives an insight on the elaboration of municipality assessments (BEI and RVA), finally Part 3 describes technical issues, measures and policies that can be implemented at local level.JRC.C.2-Energy Efficiency and Renewable

Group discussions on how to implement a participatory process in climate adaptation planning: a case study in Malaysia

The frequency and intensity of extreme climate events are increasing all around the world, due to climate change. Climate adaptation strategies are therefore needed, since mitigation strategies alone are not sufficient to avoid serious impacts of climate change. However, adaptation to climate change is not straightforward, as it is highly influenced by diverse and conflicting interests as well as epistemological (or scientific) uncertainties. Therefore, a minimum requirement for its success is the active participation of stakeholders and citizens in the adaptation policy cycle. This paper presents a case study on a participatory process involving civil servants from different municipalities in Malaysia, in Southeast Asia, with a view to considering the optimal level of en-gagement that is required for climate adaptation planning. The exercise consisted of a Focus Group session, where participants were asked to discuss the level of stakeholder and citizen participation that should be adopted within the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy initiative. Contrary to authors' ex-pectations, the participants tended to suggest medium to high levels of participation in the planning process. During the dialogues, a walking activity through the city, aimed at identifying hotspots of climate risks and defined as “safety walks”, was one of the ideas proposed as a high-potential participatory method, spreading in the adaptation framework. Safety walks could complement climate modelling and enhance the robustness of climate risk assessments.JRC.C.2-Energy Efficiency and Renewable

Measuring the effectiveness of the Covenant of Mayors on the reporting of climate hazards by Municipalities

The European Commission established the Covenant of Mayors (CoM) initiative in 2008, aimed at involving and supporting mayors to encourage accomplishing the European Union (EU) climate mitigation and energy targets. In 2014, the Mayors Adapt initiative was set up in order to promote the climate adaptation pillar. Whereas the mitigation pillar is more developed and peer-reviewed literature can be found, adaptation is still lagging behind, not to mention the absence of information on the effectiveness of the CoM concerning the development of climate adaptation plans. This paper aims at presenting a thorough analysis of climate hazard data declared by CoM signatories as well as the degree of regional agreement of those signatories when reporting climate data. Thus, we assume that the signatories belonging to the same climate region should report similar climate hazard data for both current and future timeframes. Using a new statistical method for measuring the variability of categorical data, we determine that, overall, the signatories show low agreement within climate regions. Hence, we conclude that the CoM, in the corresponding part of climate risk assessment, is not as effective as it could be desired. Furthermore, several recommendations are proposed to improve the current reportingJRC.E.1-Disaster Risk Managemen