The Climate Change Hub successfully concluded its second visit to Ithaca on June 9–10 as part of the implementation of the ‘SMILE’ project — a sub-project of the Pathways2Resilience (P2R) Program under Horizon Europe. This visit brought us one step closer to developing a resilience strategy for the island, using a participatory methodology.  

The agenda of our visit included a meeting with the Mayor, Mr. Dionysis Stanitsas, and members of the working sub-groups established for designing resilience strategies for the island of Ithaca, as well as an interactive workshop with the participation of local stakeholders and residents.  

Workshop “Ithaca 2045: Co-Shaping the Resilience Strategy for a Climate-Resilient Future”,  

The second workshop of the program, titled “Ithaca 2045: Co-Shaping the Resilience Strategy for a Climate-Resilient Future”, was once again designed and implemented by the Climate Change Hub and ELIAMEP, with the support of Resilient Cities Catalyst and the active contribution of the Municipality of Ithaca. The aims of the workshop were:  

• To help develop a shared vision for Ithaca in 2045, focused on climate resilience.  
• To strengthen citizen participation and engagement.  
• To explore challenges, opportunities, and innovative solutions for each thematic area of the working groups (Entrepreneurship, Social Welfare, Civil Protection, and Culture).  
• To provide information on funding tools that support climate action by municipalities.  

The workshop began with an overall update from the Mayor, Mr. Dionysis Stanitsas, on the challenges that the island has to deal with as well as on the projects implemented by the Municipality of Ithaca to address climate change and extreme weather events such as Ianos and Balos, and on the importance of the municipality’s participation in the Pathways2Resilience (P2R) programme.  

Following this, Mrs. Maria Logotheti, President of the Climate Change Hub, spoke about the linkage between climate, economy, and society, emphasising that “the cost of inaction is greater than the cost of action.”  

A key contribution to the dialogue on resilience strategy development was made by Mr. Giorgos Kaminis, former Mayor of Athens, who honored the workshop with his presence and shared insights from his experience as mayor. He specifically addressed the challenges faced during the socio-economic crisis of Greece and highlighted the importance of designing a resilience strategy for the Municipality of Athens.  

The workshop included an interactive exercise on forming a shared vision for climate resilience in Ithaca, using participatory and visual tools that foster collective thinking and strategic development. The exercise resulted in the creation of four distinct visions by the four groups:  

• Entrepreneurship group: Return to Ithaca – Nostalgia  
• Civil Protection group: Ithaca: The small island with great earthquake resilience  
• Social Welfare group: In Ithaca, care and welfare are continuous  
• Culture group: Ithaca: Homeland of Culture  

The workshop concluded with a presentation by Ms. Maria Chourdaki, BSc in Economics, MA in International and European Governance and Policy, Junior Researcher and representative of the Pathways2Resilience program. Ms. Chourdaki presented funding opportunities at the European level that could support projects addressing the challenges of climate change at local level.  

Overall, the Pathways2Resilience (P2R) programme aims to develop resilience strategies and long-term planning skills across 100 regions and municipalities in Europe. To achieve this, it provides, among other things, access to a wide range of technical tools for creating climate resilience strategies, action plans, and investments.  
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Pathways2Resilience has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 101093942. The European Commission is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information it contains.