site.btaNational Conference Held on Climate Change Adaptation in Urban Environment

Sofia Monday hosted a national conference on climate change adaptation in urban environment using local capacity and national policies. The forum was part of the programme accompanying the 61st Session of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which will be held in the Bulgarian capital between July 27 and August 2. Participating were experts from universities, ministries, municipalities, NGOs, and professional organizations.

The national conference was organized by the National Trust EcoFund (NTEF).

Addressing the forum, caretaker Minister of Environment and Water Petar Dimitrov said that green corridors in cities could play a very important role in climate change adaptation. "Our observations show that a large part of municipalities carry out very serious activities committed to climate change adaptation," he noted, giving Burgas as an example where the temperature zones in the city can be monitored online. In his words, most of them were green because of the urban greening. Bulgaria hosting the 61st Session of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is a clear confirmation of Bulgaria's policies, and the meeting is accompanied by a series of events aimed at attraction the attention of the local authorities and politicians to pressing issues, Dimitrov noted.

NTEF Management Council head Dimitar Nenkov said that the 61st Session of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is the biggest event in Bulgaria in the field of climate policies. Monday's conference is because of the considerable progress of discussions on a new initiative to improve municipalities' capacity to implement  climate change adaptation measures. The initiative starts Monday under the NTEF's leadership.The NTEF will develop other new mechanisms for funding that creates conditions for supplementing with external financial resources. The topic of climate change adaptation requires an interdisciplinary approach and solutions, Nenkov argued.

Silvia Georgieva, Executive Director of the National Association of Municipalities in the Republic of Bulgaria, said that Monday's discussion on local authorities' work on climate change adaptation measures is extremely necessary though hopelessly late.

"If we had more knowledge about climate change and paid more attention to the research of the scientific community, and if the regulatory framework was not so outdated, some of the wildfires [across Bulgaria in the last weeks] would not have happened. In recent years, the EU has given many programmes and instruments to address climate challenges, and the Green Deal has introduced the necessary change in policies, but our regulatory framework has been developed without taking into account the territorial specificities of our country and without taking into account the fact that part of Bulgaria's territory is a Mediterranean climate area, with high temperatures. Regulatory texts that apply to farmers continue to require them to clear stubble in July and August. In Greece, stubble is not cleared if the air temperature is above 30C for several consecutive days," she said. The most important measures and responsible decisions are taken at local level, as many of the activities affect measures to prevent climate change, she argued. "The growing gap between European ambitions and the lives of our citizens, for whom municipalities are responsible, should not be overlooked - we are seeing growing discontent, which shows us that citizens need to be told what requires local authorities to work more and more intensively on green policies," she said.