Università Iuav di Venezia is taking part in the United Nations Climate Change Conference as a scientific research stakeholder, with three international events devoted to urban resilience governance, the measurement of adaptation and skills for the ecological transition.

COP31, the thirty-first Conference of the Parties (COP) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), opened on 9 November in Antalya, Türkiye. Until 20 November it will bring together delegations from over 190 countries to address the climate crisis and strengthen international cooperation.

The summit takes place in a context marked by rising global temperatures and the intensification of extreme weather events. According to UNEP’s Emissions Gap Report 2026, the possibility of keeping global warming within 1.5°C with no or limited overshoot has now been lost. It therefore becomes a priority to reduce emissions, limit the extent and duration of the overshoot and create the conditions for returning below this threshold by the end of the century, bearing in mind that some impacts are already irreversible.

In this scenario, Università Iuav di Venezia is present at COP31 as promoter and scientific partner of several international events, contributing its research on climate adaptation, the resilience of coastal cities and the governance of environmental transitions, in collaboration with bodies and institutions.

“COP31 is an important step in understanding how to translate global climate goals into effective territorial policies. In a scenario in which exceeding the 1.5°C threshold now appears inevitable, adaptation must become a structural part of the processes by which cities are governed. Venice and the Veneto coastal system are an advanced testing ground involving the city, the metropolitan city and the Region. Iuav’s recognition as a UNFCCC stakeholder bears witness to the overall contribution that Iuav makes, with all the design disciplines, to building integrated responses to the climate crisis at different scales: from architectural design to urbanism, from planning to the governance of territory and landscape, from restoration to cultural heritage management, from technology to design,” says Francesco Musco, director of research at Università Iuav di Venezia.

The participation is part of the University’s process of internationalising its research and of its collaborations with institutions, universities, international organisations and scientific networks engaged in implementing climate policies, together with the City of Venice, the Veneto Region and the Ministry of the Environment.

Venice and urban resilience
Among the events is the side event “Venice, a Tale of Two Floodings – Governing the Oldest City of the Future”, organised at the Italy Pavilion by the Venice Sustainability Foundation (VSF). It is the third meeting in an international series that began at COP29 in Baku and continued at COP30 in Belém, devoted to Venice’s experiences of adaptation and resilience.

The meeting will address the two pressures affecting Venice: the climate pressure, linked to high water and sea level rise, and the human-induced pressure, determined above all by tourist flows. These are different phenomena, but they call for shared tools of knowledge, monitoring, forecasting and governance. The discussion will explore experiences related to the MOSE system, nature-based solutions and the use of data to manage urban flows, highlighting the contribution of scientific research to public policy.

Iuav will be represented by Francesco Musco, Director of research, together with representatives of the Municipality of Venice and international institutions. The conclusions will be delivered by Kamal Kishore, Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Disaster Risk Reduction and head of UNDRR.

Measuring adaptation: Iuav and the IPAM platform
On Thursday 12 November, from 3.30 to 5 p.m., at the Morocco Pavilion, the side event “Six years shaping adaptation metrics, from Marrakech to Addis Ababa” will be held, promoted by the International Platform on Adaptation Metrics (IPAM), of which Iuav is a partner.

The meeting will take stock of six years of international scientific cooperation to develop metrics and indicators for assessing progress in adapting to climate change. One year after COP30 in Belém, the discussion will focus on the applicability of the 59 adaptation indicators identified in the international negotiating process and on the prospects for developing monitoring tools ahead of COP32.

For Iuav, taking part is an opportunity to illustrate the contribution of research to assessing the effectiveness of climate policies, linking global indicators to the transformation of cities and territories.

Skills for the climate and energy transition
The third event, “Building Resilience: Skills and Multi-Stakeholder Dialogue between Climate Adaptation and Energy Transition”, will take place at the Italy Pavilion and is promoted by Iuav together with the RUS Piemonte network, the University of Eastern Piedmont, the University of Turin and the Fondazione Antonio Emanuele Augurusa.

The initiative will address the need to develop professional skills that integrate adaptation, energy transition, spatial planning and the participation of local communities. The discussion will involve universities, institutions and organisations engaged in training and innovation, and will explore the role of post-graduate education and of dialogue between public administrations, businesses and civil society.