CASE STUDYCOU NTRY

CI T YPO PU L AT I O N

L AST R E PORT E D E M I SSI ON S

M I T I GAT I ON TA RG E T

GR E ECE

AT H EN S

661 ,2 784 , 5 8 1,962 TCO 2 e-4 0 % BY 20 30 (BAS E YE AR: 1 9 9 0)

In the municipality of Athens, a whole
department for developing resilience
As the warmest European city, Athens is considered as one of the cities most exposed to climate change-related increase of heat waves. Over the past few years, actions have been taken by the municipality to bothmitigate Athens’ climate impact and adapt the city to future impacts, especially by greening the city. Asa C40 member since 2007, the city signed the Urban Nature Declaration in 2021, and is a signatory of theCities Race to Zero.

A highly impacted city
Athens already finds itself facing a relatively high level of heat stress and related
challenges, which is only set to increase
with climate change. Between 2000-2012,
Athens had observed a 5.2% increase inmortality for every 1°C increase in daily
max temperatures over 31.5°C. A Newcastle
University study, assessing future changes
in flood, heat-waves and drought impacts
for 571 European cities identified Athens as
one of the most vulnerable cities to these future climate change impacts. Facing thesechallenges has made the city a pioneer interms of resilience policy.

An integrated approachlinking mitigation and adaptation
In 2014, Athens joined the 100 Resilient Cities
network pioneered by the Rockefeller Foundation, after a competitive process. This led
to the creation in 2016 of a Department ofResilience and Sustainability, headed by aChief Resilience Officer, who elaborated theAthens Resilience 2030 Strategy, planning
65 actions and 53 supporting actions witha “clear vision of how the city can best copewith the increasing interdependency ofshocks and stresses.“ Each action is linked tothe related Sustainable Development Goals(SDGs). The city obtained a €55 million
loan from the European Investment Bank
to implement the strategy. The same year,
an integrated Climate Action Plan for both
mitigation and adaptation was published,supported by C40. Its sets the objective ofachieving a 40% reduction of GHG emissions by 2030 compared to 1990, as well as
maintaining and increasing green spaces
or using sustainable materials for the builtenvironment.
As part of the supporting actions for theClimate Action Plan and the Resilience
Strategy, the municipality launched#CoolAthens, a public health protection,
public information, and awareness campaign. It includes actions such as promoting
publicly available personalized information
linking high temperatures to health risks;
preparing guides as well as Near Field
Communication (NFC) tags to orient highrisk populations to an enhanced networkof municipal “Cool Centers” which protects
people during high temperatures; linking
all heat-related data sources; establishing
information and awareness-raising campaigns and activities, and engaging theprivate sector in the activities.

Cooling the city throughgreen spaces
Increasing the total surface of green areas
is key to the Athens’ strategy to reduce its
vulnerability to extreme heat. In 2018, Athens
already had one of the highest rate of area
covered by green space among European
capital cities (15%, after Stockholm (19%)),while overall, cities in the north and west ofEurope have more total green space withintheir area than cities in southern and eastern Europe. With the support of the Greek
State, companies and European funds, theGlobal Synthesis Report on Local Climate Action

budget for green spaces has quadrupledin the recent years. Green roofs, parks, trees
and water fountains have grown in numberin the whole city.
In 2019, Athens was the first city to benefit
from the Natural Capital Financing Facility(NCFF), the European Investment Bank’s
new tool to help cities financing green or
blue infrastructure projects. The €5 million
NCFF loan aims to finance and support theintegration of green components into therestoration of public squares and streets,
create green corridors between different
greened areas and contribute to the natural restoration of Athens’ second landmark
hill after the Acropolis, Lycabettus hill.
In Summer 2021, the city signed the Urban
Nature Declaration, committing to make
30-40% of the total built-up city surface
area green or permeable to water, and/or to ensure the access of at least 70% of
the population to a blue or green spacewithin a 15-minute radius. In the meantime,
the Chief Resilience Officer Elini Myrivili
became “Chief Heat Officer”, following theexamples of Miami-Dade County (UnitedStates) and Freetown (Sierra Leone).

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