The Climate Resilience Centre (CRC), coordinated by the Eurecat technology centre, has signed a partnership agreement with the United Nations-backed Global Ocean Negative Carbon Emissions (Global ONCE) research programme which cements it as an international player in innovative solutions for climate change adaptation and mitigation in coastal and marine areas.
This research programme is led by Xiamen University professor Nianzhi Jiao and part of the United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (2022-2030). The partnership agreement was signed in the Chinese city of Beijing by Carles Ibáñez, scientific director of the Climate Resilience Centre and head of Eurecat’s Climate Solutions and Ecosystem Services Technology Unit; Siyuan Ye from the Qingdao Institute of Marine Geology, China Geological Survey; and Tingwei Luo, director of the Ocean Active Carbon Emissions Research Centre.
The Climate Resilience Centre will add to the research and best practices of this global initiative shared by some eighty partners from 33 countries and which seeks to help achieve the commitments in the global strategy to cut emissions by driving research in seas, oceans and coastal zones.
Climate change and United Nations experts say that this decade is critical to prevent the impact of climate change from seriously and irreversibly harming the economy, territories and people’s health.
Eurecat’s Climate Resilience Centre “delivers solutions based on technological innovation and nature to make headway in the battle against climate change which has numerous territorial and economic repercussions for society,” said Carles Ibáñez.
The Climate Resilience Centre “is working to build and generate value in climate solutions by developing robust and innovative solutions to combat the climate emergency, whether in adaptation or mitigation.”
The Climate Resilience Centre’s projects include nature-based solutions, water technologies, earth, soil and sediment observation, data and artificial intelligence technologies, applied robotics, the circular economy and energy efficiency.
The partnership with the Global ONCE programme includes the European REST-COAST project, which demonstrates that large-scale coastal restoration can be a low-carbon footprint solution for climate adaptation and disaster risk reduction in threatened coastal systems coupled with enhancing their biodiversity and delivering ecosystem services.
Climate Resilience Centre projects
The Climate Resilience Centre also powers innovative solutions for safeguarding and restoring Mediterranean marine protected areas in the EFFECTIVE initiative, which combines technological, digital and nature-based solutions and tools to foster social participation for ecosystem-based management applied to the protection and restoration of the European Union’s Mediterranean Blue Natural Capital.
The Climate Resilience Centre is additionally involved in the Life eCOadapt50 project which aims to raise awareness of climate change adaptation at the local level in Catalonia through the engagement of governments, research centres and socio-economic stakeholders. In particular, Life eCOadapt50 steps up the resilience of the economic sectors most vulnerable to climate change in four economic activities, namely tourism, fishing, forestry, and agriculture and livestock.
Another of the outstanding initiatives in which the Climate Resilience Centre is developing innovative solutions is the BIORESILMED project for fostering the bioeconomy in the two main types of Mediterranean landscapes, coastal and inland, by harnessing participatory methodologies to deliver innovative solutions and a network of experimental farms. Its purpose is to transform the bioeconomy of Mediterranean rural territories and extend the model to other similar landscapes through pilot tests, networking, capacity building, business model development, citizen participation and green job generation. The initiative also puts in place nature-based solutions to enhance ecosystem services.
Climate Resilience Centre’s strategic goals
The Climate Resilience Centre seeks to ensure that the results, knowhow and technology solutions of the numerous projects it is engaged in are transferred to businesses and society so they can take them on board as tools to stand out and generate new business models and practices which unlock climate resilience and the wellbeing of society.
The purpose is to mitigate climate change and enable adaptation in terms of drought, water scarcity and rising sea levels along with other effects including extreme weather events, loss of biodiversity and heat waves.
To this end, the Climate Resilience Centre delivers applied research, methodological tools and innovative technologies to fast-track solutions for shifting towards sustainable development across regions, businesses, people and tiers of government.
