{"id":2503,"date":"2025-05-21T10:33:18","date_gmt":"2025-05-21T10:33:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climaerel.ipta.demokritos.gr\/?p=2503"},"modified":"2025-05-21T10:33:24","modified_gmt":"2025-05-21T10:33:24","slug":"thanasis-sfetsos-explains-how-the-innovative-circular-project-med-iren-is-building-climate-resilience-in-the-mediterranean","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climaerel.ipta.demokritos.gr\/index.php\/2025\/05\/21\/thanasis-sfetsos-explains-how-the-innovative-circular-project-med-iren-is-building-climate-resilience-in-the-mediterranean\/","title":{"rendered":"Thanasis Sfetsos explains how the innovative, circular project Med-IREN is building climate resilience in the Mediterranean."},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Thanasis Sfetsos from the National Centre for Scientific Research \u201cDEMOKRITOS\u201d outlines how the EU-funded <strong>Med-IREN project<\/strong>, launched in 2024, is helping Mediterranean regions adapt to climate change by embracing <strong>circular economy principles<\/strong> and <strong>Nature-based Solutions (NbS)<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Mediterranean is highly vulnerable to climate impacts such as droughts, floods, wildfires, and rising temperatures. Traditional development models have intensified these challenges, highlighting the need for regenerative, sustainable approaches.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Med-IREN focuses on:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Restoring wetlands<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Greening urban spaces and infrastructures<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Enhancing coastal ecosystems<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Reducing wildfire risks<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Using water-smart technologies<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>The project is piloted in <strong>Spain, France, Italy, Greece, and Cyprus<\/strong>, each serving as a testbed for NbS integrated with traditional infrastructure. For example, in Tuscany, recycled marble gravel is used to protect coastlines in a sustainable and aesthetically natural way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Med-IREN promotes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Ecosystem-based infrastructure<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Community co-designed interventions<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Scalable and locally tailored solutions<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>A holistic model linking environmental restoration with societal resilience<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>As a Mission on Adaptation to Climate Change initiative, Med-IREN aims to demonstrate that <strong>working with nature<\/strong> can turn risks into opportunities while supporting economic and social sustainability across Europe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-essential-blocks-button\"><div class=\"eb-parent-wrapper eb-parent-eb-button-u03vo \"><div class=\"eb-button-wrapper eb-button-alignment eb-button-u03vo\"><div class=\"eb-button\"><a class=\"eb-button-anchor\" href=\"https:\/\/www.circularonline.co.uk\/insight\/circular-solutions-for-climate-change-in-the-mediterranean\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read article<\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Thanasis Sfetsos from the National Centre for Scientific Research \u201cDEMOKRITOS\u201d outlines how the EU-funded Med-IREN project, launched in 2024, is helping Mediterranean regions adapt to climate change by embracing circular economy principles and Nature-based Solutions (NbS). The Mediterranean is highly vulnerable to climate impacts such as droughts, floods, wildfires, and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2504,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_eb_attr":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[246,5],"tags":[161,189,23,88,24,248,339,236,82],"class_list":["post-2503","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-med-iren","category-projects","tag-climateaction","tag-climateadaptation","tag-climatechange","tag-climateimpact","tag-climateresilience","tag-med-iren","tag-missionclimate","tag-naturebasedsolutions","tag-ncsr-demokritos"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/climaerel.ipta.demokritos.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2503","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/climaerel.ipta.demokritos.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/climaerel.ipta.demokritos.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climaerel.ipta.demokritos.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climaerel.ipta.demokritos.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2503"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/climaerel.ipta.demokritos.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2503\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2505,"href":"https:\/\/climaerel.ipta.demokritos.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2503\/revisions\/2505"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climaerel.ipta.demokritos.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2504"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/climaerel.ipta.demokritos.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2503"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climaerel.ipta.demokritos.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2503"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climaerel.ipta.demokritos.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2503"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}