Euromontana organised the third webinar of the Smart Mountains serie on “Climate adaptation: what opportunities for mountain businesses?” on 27 May 2021.

Context

Euromontana will organise its XII European Mountain Convention on “Smart mountains: how to make our territories attractive and future-oriented?” in the Natural Park & UNESCO Biosphere Reserve of Sila, Italy in 11-12-13 October 2022. This 3-Day event will aim at defining a sustainable strategy for the development of smart mountains towards 2050. In view of this event, Euromontana is organising a series of webinars to feed reflection and showcase good initiatives and contribute to foresight analysis for our collective future. The third webinar focused on business opportunities for mountain SMEs linked to climate adaptation.

Climate change acts faster in mountain regions compared to lowland areas, and it strongly affects the mountain economy. For instance, a 2°C-temperature increase is expected to reduce the length of the European winter sport season by an average of 19 days, causing a loss of 10.1 million nights per winter season. Local businesses shall act quickly and seize the existing opportunities to tackle the effects of climate change in their business and foster mountain adaptation.

The webinar gave the floor to European representatives, who explored the political and economic opportunities to adapt to climate change in the coming years. The event also showcased inspiring examples of mountain businesses which successfully adapt their activity to climate change. Hence, the webinar answered questions such as: what are the current and future opportunities to foster climate adaptation for SMEs and businesses in mountains? What are some of the most inspiring examples?

Event material

During the webinar, representatives from the European Commission, the EIT Climate KIC and mountain businesses explored the possibilities for mountain local economies to adapt to climate change. Please refer to:

Webinar recording