CDI’s work and achievements

Regional development, understood as development of municipalities/cities/regions, is a wider concept. It includes the economic dimension as well as the positive changes occurring in other societal areas (social, cultural, health-related, ...) while improving or, at least, not endangering the current level of quality of the environment and respecting the genius loci of each territory. For a territory to develop in a sustainable, dynamic and synergic way, the activities and interests of various public and private institutions must be summarised and coordinated to achieve the most effective and most efficient solutions of joint challenges possible. Therefore, we are talking of the good governance of territorial development, which is a direct responsibility of territorial self-government.

Human induced climate change poses a threat to the lives and health of people, the environment, infrastructure and assets, mainly in urban areas. Existing communication, transportation, economic supply and social systems are interconnected and usually exist within relatively small territories with a higher density of population, therefore any disturbance to one or multiple elements of the system causes a chain reaction translated into various failures. A solution to this problem calls for a systemic change in the functioning of self-governments which, in their capacity of adaptation process leaders, will accept reacting to current as well as future climate change impact as an integral part of their mid- and long-term planning of development intents, everyday activities and decision-making. Local reaction to climate change is understood as the decreased production of greenhouse gases and adaptation, or even transformation, of existing systems against current and anticipated climate change impacts.