Deputy Mayor of Bonn Reinhard Limbach opened Open European Day 2017 on 3 May 2017 in Bonn (Germany) with the observation that “what used to happen once in 100 years now happens once a year". 104 representatives from cities in Europe and as far abroad as Buenos Aires (Argentina) attended Open European Day at Bonn Resilient Cities along with climate change adaptation and resilience experts from the academic community, the private sector, financiers and EU institutions to attend two panels and nine workshops focusing on the key themes of innovation, co-creation and transformation. Stephanie Lindenberg of the European Investment bank provided details of how cities can successfully apply for funding of between €1 million - €50 million for climate change adaptation projects through the Natural Capital Financing Facility.
Lykke Leonardsen explained that the city of Copenhagen (Denmark) joined the 4th Open European Day “to share the knowledge that we have in Copenhagen with other cities, but also to learn from other cities, because a lot of European cities are facing the same challenges... And because the same cities participate, then you can actually get to follow the development they are going through.” Bilbao, a partner city of the event’s co-organiser, the RESIN project, showed how they included a chapter on climate change in its Master Plan and started work on its SUMP. Sirpa Hertell, Committee of the Regions spoke from her experience as Espoo city councillor to stress that cities and regions need the support of researchers and universities to assess their climate risks and vulnerability.
New ICLEI Member Guimarães (Portugal) shared their successful flood management project in a historical part of the city, which has helped to eliminate flooding in the area since 2015. Finally, Nuno Lopes, city of Almada (Portugal) reflected on the support that ICLEI gives to cities: “The importance of ICLEI with Almada has been huge... It has been a fantastic help for us to find out some climate regulation solutions that we might use in our city in the next years.” Open European Day was organised by ICLEI Europe and the European Environment Agency.
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