S3ADAPT

The economic, environmental and social costs of failure to adapt to climate change in the EU between 2020 and 2050 are estimated to increase by 2.5 times, to EUR 250 billion per year. By 2100, annual infrastructure damage could increase tenfold. Adapting to upcoming change will be necessary to maintain the development of local economies and communities.
S3ADAPT aims to integrate the Smart Specialisation Strategies (S3) with climate change adaptation policy to foster sustainable regional development and efficient adaptation. This will create a strategic framework to adjust business models to new challenges (e.g. resource availability changes) and support innovations to mitigate negative climate impacts. In result the awareness and preparation of regions for extreme changes will raise.
The project supports EU cohesion policy by promoting sustainable regional development, innovation and adaptation. Utilizing S3 helps identify and develop innovative, locally-adapted solutions to enhance regional capacity to address challenges and stimulate growth. The project creates synergies between existing climate change adaptation initiatives and new S3-derived solutions, aiming to harness potential across sectors and implement effective adaptation strategies.
The project assumes a diversity of approaches and points of view through the involvement of partners representing 6 different EU regions. The approach includes analysis of existing climate adaptation policies in partner regions, conducting climate resilience stress tests, field visits and practice assessments on key topics, such as innovative funding mechanisms, risk assessment and management, cross-sectoral and multi-level collaboration for adaptation. Stakeholder involvement will be ensured and combined with analysing public intervention effects, identifying best practices and implementing new approaches.
Gathering and utilising diverse knowledge will contribute to successful refining of policy instruments.