Elena Curto, Climate Change and Energy Transition Manager at Ineco, highlighted the urgent need to accelerate adaptation, noting the increasing demand for action and funding at territorial level.
The College of Civil Engineers (Colegio de Ingenieros de Caminos, Canales y Puertos) has brought together sector experts in a key event to address the role of civil engineering in the face of extreme weather events, a growing challenge driven by climate change. From a strategic perspective, the meeting focused on how to anticipate, adapt to and respond to increasingly frequent and intense risks.
In this context, Elena Curto, Climate Change and Energy Transition Manager at Ineco, underlined the urgent need to accelerate adaptation, highlighting the rising demand for action and funding at territorial level. During her intervention, she identified three major challenges: the need for investment to reach all levels of the territory, the gap between the urgency of adaptation measures and the capacity of municipalities to both implement and finance them, and the importance of establishing stable and predictable co‑funding models.
Elena Curto also emphasised the complex architecture of available financing, ranging from European funds such as NextGenerationEU or ERDF to instruments from the EIB or ICO, which mobilise billions of euros for resilience projects in areas such as water management, mobility and flood protection. These mechanisms, she noted, are essential to driving more robust infrastructure adapted to the new climate reality.
In conclusion, she stressed the importance of strengthening our ability to transform territorial needs into sound, fundable projects, a roadmap that places civil engineering at the heart of efforts to protect infrastructure and improve quality of life in the face of climate change impacts.
