LIFE Flanders Initiative for Climate Adaptation

Introduction

Climate change is considered to be one of the greatest global challenges for people and society. In Flanders, a number of important trends can already be identified. However, even moderate climate scenarios predict even bigger impacts. Specifically, the urban climate hotspots of Brussels, Antwerp, Ghent, Kortrijk, Mechelen, Roeselare, Bruges, Aalst, Leuven, and Hasselt will feel the climate effects more strongly than rural areas.

Challenges to Climate Adaptation

The LIFE Flanders Initiative for Climate Adaptation (LIFE Flandica) aims to address several challenges that are currently preventing measures from being more effective:

• Expertise on climate adaptive measures is spread over various entities of the Flemish government.
• Local authorities can play an important role in realizing the green-blue metamorphosis. Larger cities have more expertise in this area (and/or have more resources to bring in external expertise), but in smaller cities and municipalities, this is often insufficiently available.
• There is a need in Flanders to increase awareness that we are increasingly faced with a changed climate and that we must proactively adapt our public and private space to this. By taking the consequences of climate change into account in our current projects and plans, we are transforming Flanders into a sustainable future.

Objectives of LIFE Flandica

With LIFE Flandica, we want to prepare for the start-up of SIP focusing on the (Flemish) Green Deal on climate-proof cities:

1. Enter into consultations with various involved bodies (government, civil society, professional federations, sector federations) to test interests.
2. Bring together priority partners in a steering group to define the objectives.
3. Prepare an EU-SIP project that will provide the necessary framework for the Green Deal on climate-proof design of cities.