What it is
The European Urban Resilience Forum (EURESFO) is a yearly meeting on how cities adapt to climate change and manage disaster risk. ICLEI Europe and the European Environment Agency have organised it since 2013, each time with a host city. It brings together city representatives, experts and people from local and regional institutions, according to the forum’s own site.
Its distinguishing feature is the “PowerPoint-free” format: sessions are run as discussions and exchanges of practical experience rather than slide talks.
How the programme works
The 13th edition took place from 17 to 19 June 2026 at the Pavilhão Multiusos in Guimarães, which holds the European Green Capital title for 2026. Climate KIC co-organised it. The theme was integrated approaches to resilience that go beyond adaptation, with special attention to small and medium-sized cities.
The programme was built around four thematic streams: people at the centre (just resilience, housing, democracy); the governance of resilience; managing climate extremes in a place-sensitive way; and tools, including financing, AI and digital tools. Sessions covered the forthcoming EU Climate Resilience and Risk Management Integrated Framework and the Nature Restoration Regulation, and hazards such as wildfires, extreme heat, droughts and flooding. Organisations also had stands at a marketplace.
Climate KIC’s event page lists its own workshops, including one on moving from climate risk assessments to bankable resilience investments, and another on housing.
Who goes and how to take part
The audience is city and regional staff, researchers and practitioners working on adaptation. Host cities change each year and are chosen through an open invitation: after the 2025 forum in Rotterdam the organisers invited cities and regions to bid to host 2026.
We could not find a registration fee published on the pages we read.
Why it matters for cities
Adaptation touches several parts of a city administration, from planning and housing to civil protection and finance, and the 2026 streams covered each of them. The format favours comparing what cities have actually implemented over presenting plans, and the 2026 focus on small and medium-sized cities speaks to municipalities that do not have large adaptation teams.
Next edition
The 14th forum will take place in Vejle, Denmark, which the organisers describe as the first city in Europe to launch a resilience strategy, in 2016. The dates had not been published when we checked the forum’s About page.