The impacts of climate change are being felt here and now. From floods in Germany to wildfires in Greece and Turkey; water shortages in Northern Europe and even heatwaves in Siberia. Intensifying weather events threaten our way of life, with severe impacts on people’s health, livelihoods and assets.

To help accelerate the Europe’s climate adaptation strategy and meet ambitions to become the world’s first climate-neutral continent by 2050, the European Commission has awarded a new flagship project named IMPETUS. Its objective: turn climate commitments into tangible, urgent actions to protect communities and the planet. KWB is proud to announce that under the leadership of Eurecat we are part of IMPETUS, helping to shape the path to a climate-neutral future.

Accelerating our response in every bio-climatic region of Europe

The IMPETUS project will help accelerate Europe’s response to climate change and develop innovative measures to make its regions more resilient.

Motivated and multidisciplinary teams from altogether 32 partners in research, policy, industry and civil society will address real-world challenges in seven pilot regions across Europe. Together these represent all the continent’s bio-climatic regions: Arctic, Atlantic, Boreal, Coastal, Continental, Mediterranean and Mountainous.

Under the work package lead by KWB, these teams will analyse and scale the most effective solutions to protect water, agriculture, fisheries, infrastructure and health. Working with local policy-makers, businesses and communities will help to make them a success.

KWB will also coordinate the pilot for the “continental” zone and address water in Berlin and Brandenburg. We promote green infrastructure, innovative technologies and sustainable services to set a decisive course for future-oriented, interdisciplinary and cross-sectoral cooperation. KWB is able to leverage the task thanks to its partners in the project: The Berlin Senate Department for the Environment, Transport and Climate Protection (SenUVK), Berliner Wasserbetriebe and Global Climate Forum. We are especially pleased to have brought SenUVK on board this promising and important EU project, thus living up to our aim of linking regional and global solutions.

“IMPETUS is a major opportunity for the EU,’’ says our Managing Director Professor Jochen Rabe. ‘’The project will help our sustainable transformation, with in-depth research of complex climate change impacts in demonstration cases, as well as bottlenecks to climate mitigation and adaptation we all need to overcome.’’

Three pillars define the project:

Action

• 15 technical and nature-based solutions will be tested in the 7 pilot regions, ranging from early warning systems and rapid risk appraisal of natural hazards to sand dune restoration

Information

• Targeted analysis using the latest data sets, digital modelling and cutting-edge technology will determine the highest impact actions and decisions to take

Support

• Collaborating with sectors, businesses and communities most at risk from climate change will help create solutions and define a transition that protects the environment and our economy

By putting transformative actions that change our climate future into place across Europe, IMPETUS aims to show what is possible – and give everyone the information and tools to achieve it for themselves.

To amplify this impact, specific partners will also advise insurance companies, financial institutions and banks on how they can also adapt and support, based on case studies. And together with the United Nations Sustainable Solutions Network and leading education providers, Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) will make IMPETUS insights open to the world.

A four-year innovation action beginning October 2021

Beginning October 2021 and set to run for four years, IMPETUS will share regular insights on its social media channels. Join us there – and share your climate adaptation stories too!

twitter: @ClimateImpetus
Linkedin.com/climateimpetus

But that is not all. The KWB has also won a second major EU Green Deal project. Which one? You will soon find out via a new special edition of our newsletter, our website and our social media channels.