Climate Impetus Project

The impacts of climate change are being felt here and now. From floods in Germany to wildfires in Greece and Turkey; water shortages in Northern Europe and even heatwaves in Siberia. Intensifying weather events threaten our way of life, with severe impacts on people’s health, livelihoods and assets.

To help accelerate the Europe’s climate adaptation strategy and meet ambitions to become the world’s first climate-neutral continent by 2050, the European Commission has awarded a new flagship project named IMPETUS. Its objective: turn climate commitments into tangible, urgent actions to protect communities and the planet. The IMPETUS project will help accelerate Europe’s response to climate change and develop innovative measures to make its regions more resilient.

Motivated and multidisciplinary teams in research, policy, industry and civil society will address real-world challenges in seven test regions across Europe. Together these represent all the continent’s bio-climatic regions: Arctic, Atlantic, Boreal, Coastal, Continental, Mediterranean and Mountainous.

These teams will analyse and scale the most effective solutions to protect water, agriculture, fisheries, infrastructure and health. Working with local policy-makers, businesses and communities will help to make them a success.

Within the seven regional test beds – one in each bioclimatic region of Europe – the Valle dei Laghi and Cantina Toblino were identified to represent the mountainous area and seek innovative solutions to be used in the future to tackle climate change.

“93% of Europeans consider climate change a serious problem. To respond effectively, we need to adapt our policy actions and strategies to new climatic situations. We need to better understand when and how to act in a transition to green economy.” says Aitor Corchero, Eurecat senior researcher and project technical coordinator. “IMPETUS is important because it demonstrates the concrete actions we all urgently need to take to protect the environment and the economy. It will work on solutions for a range of climate conditions – from the artic to the Mediterranean basin – empower communities and protect key systems like water, agriculture and infrastructure.”

Cantina Toblino will play a key role in the Impetus project, in particularly with regard to the development of an applicable and scalable Innovation Package in different mountain areas in a national and international context. This objective will be achievable thanks to the contribution of various stakeholders and through the creation of an European network of institutions and private bodies able to contribute to the realization of the project as well as the promotion of the same in various communities of reference. The main ambitious is to be able to increase material and immaterial know-how as well as to augment the sense of responsibility regarding the main critical points and vulnerabilities related to climate change.

The impact we would like to see at the end of this path is the dissemination and adoption of some of the best practices identified over the next 4 years in an European context aimed at encouraging climate and social resilience. Cantina Toblino will be the reference point and the spokesperson of a series of initiatives able to lead to the environmental and socio-economic protection of mountain areas.