For the LOCALISED project, Climate Media Factory and the University of Twente presented insights into some of their current work.

The guiding topic of the 6th European Climate Change Adaptation Conference was to accelerate the shift from climate science to climate adaptation action. Hosted by JPI Climate and the Magica Project, 450 researchers and practitioners from different European countries assembled at Dublin Castle for two days of project presentations, panel discussions, and multiple informal exchanges about how to do so.

For the LOCALISED project, Tobias Gralke from the Climate Media Factory and Gerard Martínez Görbig from the University of Twente presented insights into some of their current work. While Gerard brought a poster about the adaptation measures database which the Decarbonisation Profiler will be built upon, Tobias gave a talk about the emergence and design of narratives for local and participatory climate politics. The failed “Berlin 2030 Klimaneutral” referendum and the “European Green Capital” campaign in Vitoria-Gasteiz were used as case studies to discuss what makes narratives transformative and how these narratives (don’t) become local practices. The work on these questions will continue in the project’s Task 6.3 “Narratives and new roles for active EU citizens”. There it will inform the Decarbonisation Profiler’s attempt to help its users tell meaningful stories about their local climate futures – and to bring these futures into being.

Finally, particularly relevant for the project were the conference’s other sessions about decision-making platforms and the engagement of stakeholders and citizens. Many of the questions and assumptions that the LOCALISED project works with proved to be of high and urgent relevance for other projects and adopters as well: How exactly do we move beyond mere data presentation towards supporting meaningful and wise decision-making? How can local knowledge be demystified and operationalized for climate adaptation action? And, given the myriad of climate adaptation platforms across Europe, how do we ensure that the services we create will have a lasting impact and use value for our stakeholders?

The next ECCA Conference will take place in 2025 in Italy, organized by our project partner CMCC. We already look forward to being a part of it and presenting the final outcomes of the LOCALISED project!