Building Climate Resilience Through Cross-Border Cooperation

The event showcased best practices in implementing the “From Source to Sea” approach to enhance climate resilience in the Danube River Basin and along the coasts of the Black Sea and the Mediterranean. Stakeholders from across these regions exchanged experiences, advanced cross-border cooperation, and highlighted the importance of integrated water and coastal management to tackle climate change, pollution, biodiversity loss, and coastal security risks.

The session emphasised synergies between regional conventions and EU macro-regional strategies, with a particular focus on the achievements of EUSAIR. It addressed pressing climate challenges, including flooding of coastal and riverine areas due to sea level rise and increasingly intense storms. Participants presented good practices in flood mitigation and protection, along with proposals for concrete actions in urban centres and coastal protected areas, such as salt pans and wetlands. Special attention was given to strengthening bilateral, sub-regional, regional, and inter-regional cooperation in addressing the triple crisis of pollution, biodiversity loss, and climate change. Discussions also drew on the latest findings and recommendations from the EU and the United Nations Ocean Conference (UNOC) 2025 in Nice, France.

Organised within the framework of the EUSAIR Thematic Steering Group on Environmental Quality and co-coordinated by Dr. Mitja Bricelj and Dr. Senad Oprašić, the workshop was held in collaboration with the Ministry of Natural Resources and Spatial Planning of the Republic of Sloveni. Dr. Lidija Globevnik, Director-General of the Water Directorate, emphasised that such initiatives are vital for all countries bordering the shared sea and for protecting increasingly pressured coastal and marine resources. Dr. Bricelj added that Slovenia’s proactive implementation of the Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM) Protocol, supported by the TSG and management of the coastal strip between Izola and Koper, has made Slovenia the most successful country in the Mediterranean for integrated coastal management, according to the 2025 PAP/RAC Barcelona Convention analysis.