The Eurecat technology centre has set up a unit in its Sustainability Area that brings together applied research, innovation and interdisciplinary collaboration to develop climate solutions and improve territorial, coastal, water and business resilience targeting the bioeconomy and nature-based solutions.
The Climate Solutions and Ecosystem Services (CLIMSES) team also assesses and delivers strategies supporting sustainability and adaptation to climate change through Living Labs and a network of experimental farms equipped with advanced monitoring sensors.
“We work closely with technology and knowledge stakeholders, businesses, public authorities and the social sector to co-design and implement climate solutions that make our territory a model of environmental and social resilience to be followed and replicated,” says Nil Álvarez, the unit’s director, who points out that the team is expected to grow to fifteen people by the end of the year.
To this end, the CLIMSES team “carries out activities in diverse areas ranging from designing and implementing nature-based solutions to drawing up territorial action plans related to the bioeconomy and the restoration of natural capital, making sustainability and climate change adaptation the core concern of our efforts.”
It also “works in a network with other institutions and organisations to develop integrated management models for Mediterranean landscapes with an emphasis on agriculture, ecosystems and biodiversity,” notes Miquel Rovira, director of Eurecat’s Sustainability Area.
Environmental quality and climate resilience are cornerstones of Eurecat’s operations as set out in its three-year Strategic Plan to help build a planet-friendly economy while ensuring circular management of scarce and critical resources, environmental restoration and biodiversity and a climate-neutral society with the goal of fast-tracking decarbonisation in industrial processes to shrink the ecological footprint and mitigate climate change.
Coastal, water and business resilience
It also conducts coastal resilience projects to identify coastal zone stressors and deliver nature-based solutions to mitigate the effects of climate change.
In water resilience, it addresses water challenges associated with the pressures caused by climate change and other global change factors from the standpoint of water resource quantity and quality, assessing the effects on ecosystems and human health alongside economic activities.
Business resilience is another work strand which involves assessing the entire value chain of businesses and economic sectors to step up their resilience to climate change by identifying risks and proposing corrective measures alongside their connection with preserving and promoting natural capital.
CLIMSES’s operations also make the bioeconomy central to the integrated management plans of the areas in which it operates by co-creating regional and sector management plans.
Climate adaptation and bioeconomy
It is involved in the Rest-Coast project which addresses large-scale coastal restoration as a solution for climate adaptation and disaster risk reduction in threatened coastal systems coupled with improving their conservation, enhancing biodiversity and optimising the ecosystem services they provide.
In the Bioresilmed project, it has generated tools for jointly designing a plan and undertaking actions to unlock the bioeconomy in the two main types of Mediterranean landscapes: coastal and inland. In the Impetus project, it has shared its expertise to fast-track Europe’s response to climate change and turn commitments into tangible actions, including developing innovative measures to make its regions more resilient.
In the Life eCOadapt50 project, it is leading and coordinating the Living Lab for climate adaptation in les Terres de l’Ebre, while as part of the European CLIMAS project it has built citizen science tools which have helped to galvanise the Catalan climate assembly.
