The Bulgarian National Climate Adaptation Hub held its second meeting within Green Transition Forum 6.0, which took place from 1 to 5 June 2026 in Sofia. The hub’s participation in the forum placed the need for better coordination between national institutions, municipalities, the expert community and financial instruments at the centre of the discussion, as well as the need for a stronger role for local authorities in building resilience to climate risks.

AdaptationHubs is a European initiative funded under the EU Mission on Adaptation to Climate Change. The project is building 27 national platforms for climate adaptation coordination across the European Union. The consortium includes 27 national partners, and in Bulgaria the project is implemented by the Center for Energy Efficiency EnEffect, which coordinates the work of the national hub.
Within Green Transition Forum 6.0, EnEffect joined the discussions with a clear message: climate adaptation cannot remain only at the level of strategies and sectoral policies. It must become a practical process that reaches local infrastructure: buildings, electricity distribution networks, roads, riverbeds and all systems on which people’s normal lives depend.

One of the main topics raised during the participation was the urgent need for decentralisation, both in governance and financing, and in the energy system itself. In the context of energy efficiency and adaptation, decentralisation is not an abstract administrative reform, but a condition for resilience and energy security. When energy production is closer to consumption, when buildings are renovated according to optimal criteria, and when local authorities have access to resources and tools for action, communities become less dependent on centralised systems and better prepared for crises.

The first meeting of the Bulgarian National Climate Adaptation Hub was held on 17 March 2026 in Sofia, within the annual conference of the EcoEnergy Municipal Energy Efficiency Network. It was dedicated to the National Building Renovation Plan and the role of local authorities. The meeting brought together deputy ministers from the ministries of environment, regional development and energy, representatives of the European Commission, including Svetlana Zhekova from the EU Mission on Adaptation, as well as more than 24 representatives of municipalities, non-governmental and expert organisations.

The hub is not a new institution. It functions as a flexible platform for dialogue between central government, municipalities, the expert community, the NGO sector and financial institutions. Its aim is to support the development of a sustainable model for multi-level coordination in the field of climate adaptation, building on existing formats created within the NECPlatform project.

The meeting within Green Transition Forum 6.0 continued this process by raising the question of how Bulgaria can move from general commitments to working solutions at local level. The main message from the participation was that climate adaptation requires not only national strategies, but also real capacity for action in municipalities. Without decentralisation of governance, financing and energy solutions, local authorities will struggle to develop their own resilience policies, even though they are closest to the infrastructure, people and specific risks.

More information about the initiative is available at: https://adaptationhubs.eu/