2nd Workshop in Malmö, Sweden

This case study is part of the Swedish pilot case study within the AGORA project. AGORA promotes societal transformation to empower local communities to address the climate crisis and aims to achieve this through a multidisciplinary, integrated approach and four pilot studies in Europe.

AGORA is a HORIZON Europe project started in January 2023. It supports the EU Mission on Adaptation to Climate Change.

The AGORA project promotes societal transformation to empower local communities to address the climate crisis. AGORA aims to achieve this through a multidisciplinary, integrated approach and four pilot studies all around Europe.

AGORA is a HORIZON Europe project which started in January 2023. It supports the EU Mission on Adaptation to Climate Change.

Summary

The second workshop held in Malmö, Sweden brought local stakeholders together and had them explore local vulnerabilities to extreme temperatures. Through a drawing exercise, the participants envisioned what a heat-resilient city could entail in the future.

Introduction

On February 13th, 2024, the AGORA partner SEI HQ (Stockholm Environment Institute Headquarters) hosted its second workshop in the pilot region of Malmö, Sweden. This workshop brought together stakeholders from the public administration and civil society sectors. The aim of this workshop was to co-explore adaptation strategies to combat the rising temperatures in the Malmö and help create a heat resilient city.

Methodology

The workshop was divided into two main activities, the vulnerability walk and create your future. The vulnerability walk assigned participants roles that had been developed from the same participants in an earlier workshop. The participants then arranged themselves into a straight line and the facilitator presented various adaptation strategies. If the participants’ role could implement the strategy mentioned, they stepped forward. If not, they remained in their same space. The vulnerability walk demonstrated the different opportunities for adaptation. Participants were confronted with the reality of how vulnerabilities can compound and intersect and how they are unevenly distributed in society.

The create your future activity involved a creative drawing exercise developed by the SMHI. The aim of this activity was to have participants envision a heat resilient and inclusive society 50 years into the future. First, participants were given a brief scenario that illustrated the impacts of extreme temperatures. Then, participants drew what they imagined a climate-adapted city would look and function like in the future. Some participants focused on the physical or technical aspects, while others focused on changes in attitudes and behaviors, forms of collaboration, and policy instruments. This activity encouraged diverse forms of expression and interpretation and provided an inclusive platform for all participants to contribute their ideas on what a climate-resilient city could look like.

Conclusion

The results from this second workshop in the Swedish pilot help build the foundation for future investigations in urban heat vulnerability and local adaptation strategies. In the next pilot study, the project team will invite citizens to participate in focus group discussions to co-evaluate innovative engagement methods and co-create local adaptation solutions.