From 3rd to 4th December 2024, the SPARCCLE consortium hosted a workshop in Brussels, bringing together external stakeholders and EU policymakers, including representatives from CINEA, DG ENER, and DG HERA. This collaborative event provided a platform for feedback on EU adaptation and mitigation policy analysis. It also marked the beginning of SPARCCLE’s stress test co-development process, allowing participants to contribute valuable input toward the design of the SPARCCLE climate stress test scenarios.

The application of stress tests can point to areas of vulnerability as well as identify and test options to improve resilience. SPARCCLE is undertaking a process to co-develop climate Stress Test Scenarios with key stakeholders, to explore high impact components of the socioeconomic risks of climate change in Europe. Co-development of stress tests allows policymakers and experts to provide input, ensuring that selected stressors are of the highest political and societal relevance for the EU.

The co-developed scenarios will subsequently be turned into narratives and implemented into the SPARCCLE modelling framework, to better understand the socioeconomic risks of climate change and to explore pathways toward a more climate resilient Europe.  This workshop has been crucial in ensuring that the modelling exercise produces relevant results for stakeholders and addresses urgent questions in different sectors.

The workshop was preceded by a preparatory webinar on 27th November 2024, and a follow-up webinar will be held in February/March 2025.

In 2026 the modelling results will form the basis for a report titled ‘Europe under Stress’ which will outline the risks Europe is facing under the given scenarios.