Marche Region at the European Week of Regions and Cities

The European Week of Regions and Cities, which took place from 7 to 10 October in Brussels, is the most important annual event dedicated to regional policy. During the four-day event, cities and regions present examples of their capacity to create growth and jobs and to implement EU cohesion policy, thus demonstrating the importance of the local and regional level for good European governance. Since its first edition in 2003, the event has expanded to become an unparalleled platform for communication and networking, bringing together regions and cities across Europe, including their political representatives, officials, experts and academics. In October 2024, more than 10,000 participants, including more than 1,000 speakers from across Europe and beyond, took part in an extensive programme of networking conferences, exhibitions and events dedicated to regional and local development.

Marche Region, through the presence at the event of its own figures of officials, managers and politicians, has directed the focus of the discussions on climate and sustainable development. Describing the so heterogeneous characteristics of its territory and emphasizing all the advantages and opportunities available, evidence was given of the breadth and variety of the effects that climate change is bringing to the Marche territory, therefore of the consequences on structures and human activities as well as on health and public safety. The Regional Plan for Adaptation to Climate Change (among the first regions in Italy to have drawn up and adopted it) has therefore continued to be presented to the European audience and beyond, which is, among other things, one of the objectives of the Regional Sustainable Development Plan, already in place since 2021. The NACAO Project is of considerable interest for the aforementioned Plan which includes among its three fundamental axes that of the expansion of knowledge and technological advancement, in which the activities of the NACAO Project, aimed at finding solutions for the conservation of carbon through nature-based techniques, are fully included and bring significant synergies. The Marche Region concludes the event with great satisfaction both for the positive reactions followed to the proposed topics, and for the discussions and comparisons that took place on these and other topics; with the certainty that much of what has been discussed will be a starting point for future action on our territory.