The year 2022 has started with success for the climate program and the RegionsAdapt initiative.  

In terms of advocacy, Regions4 has been asked to present the Race to Resilience to Italian regions on the 8th of February  to continue the call for more regions to join the Race. Regions4 will be working with the climate champions, and key other relevant partners such as ICLEIUnder2CoalitionClimate-Kic to look at supporting the implementation of the Race to Resilience commitments for regions and reporting through the CDP platform on progress.  

Regions4 is also supporting regions to engage in upcoming climate events such as the upcoming Middle East and and North African Region Climate week (28th – 31st March), Climate Chance Europe Summit on 7th and 8th of March, and UN Ocean conference (July 2022).    

Regions4 has also participated in the Local Governments and Municipal Authorities (LGMA) first webinars, which will define thematic working groups, so as to allow for members of the LGMA community to be able to input further in climate processes and negotiations workstreams.  

The priority for Regions4 will be to input in the discussions around the future adaptation goal, and the decentralisation of adaptation finance. Regions4 is currently developing its strategy to support African Regions members of its network to engage in climate events and processes this year, leading to COP27 that will be held in  Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, 8th to 20th of November.   

The main focus for RegionsAdapt this year, will also be to strengthen the RegionsAdapt community of practice with the launch, in January, of a survey on key topics relevant for Regions in terms of peer learning. 12 regions responded, resulting in the selection of the following topics for dedicated peer to peer learning workshop this year : mainstreaming adaptation strategies with other sectors (that will be held in early May 2022), measuring the impact of adaptation (that will be held in early September 2022).

Renewed partnerships are being developed with the Under2 Coaliton, Climate-Kic, CDP, the Basque Centre for Climate Change (BC3), and Committee of the Regions (COR) to support these efforts.

Regions4 has joined a consortium of key other organizations to answer an EU Adaptation Mission – Horizon BID proposal, on Supporting regions in developing pathways towards climate resilience and corresponding innovation agendas.     

The BID proposal will be submitted in April, with the hope that Regions4 may acquire further means to provide technical support to its members on adaptation and insert their effort within this key EU initiative.