Tackling Climate Change and Urban Resilience in the City of Athens

Abstract

The City of Athens, a venerable yet intricate city of near 700.000 residents, part of a 3.75 million people urban area, is for several years now facing severe challenges. Those include an ongoing socio-economic crisis, large refugee flows, as well as rising temperatures and recurring heat waves, resulting from climate change. Through concerted efforts, the city has managed to survive, to adapt and to transform into a more creative and collaborative city. The struggle is by no means over. From 2016 to 2017, during a period of 14 months, calling on the insights and expertise of hundreds of stakeholders, the city drafted its Resilience Strategy. This is a set of practicable actions, which first of all strengthens what has made Athens stronger: formal and informal networks and alliances. Athens Resilience Strategy offers a set of new integrated ways to prepare and protect our most vulnerable from future shocks and stresses that the city is facing and will face. The Resilience Strategy, voted by the Athens City Council in June 2017, includes city’s Adaptation and Mitigation Climate Action Plans. By consolidating power and expertise, by forming strong and diverse synergies and by opening itself to international networks and fora, Athens has managed to create an integrated framework of actions that make our City more resilient to social, economic and the significant environmental challenges that lie ahead.