JUST4CARE is a Horizon Europe project exploring how cities can design climate adaptation strategies that are fair, inclusive and effective. (Funding period 2025 – 2028)
Climate adaptation often leaves the most vulnerable behind, with policies that are unjust, isolated and short-term. JUST4CARE changes that by integrating justice, equity, and resilience into urban and regional planning in Europe.
We work with local communities in Ankara, Budapest, Madrid and Zagreb to co-create solutions that meet the needs of historically excluded groups. AI-driven models will support the integration of climate justice principles into risk assessments, while our Community of Practice (Kraków, Oslo, Rome,Vitoria-Gasteiz, Utrecht Province, Bilbao, Valencia) will promote the replication of effective solutions in other cities to ensure broader impact.
Let’s join forces to make climate adaptation just, inclusive, and resilient.
Who we are
JUST4CARE is a multidisciplinary consortium committed to building climate resilience through just and inclusive adaptation. Bringing together expertise in climate science, urban governance, community participation, AI-driven modelling, and local implementation, we work to ensure that climate adaptation is fair, effective, and leaves no one behind.
Together, 16 partner organisations from 7 countries are building a shared learning infrastructure for just urban climate resilience. The project connects four pilot cities — Madrid, Çankaya (Ankara), Budapest and Zagreb — with follower cities and European networks, so that adaptation can protect everyday life without reproducing existing inequalities.
How we work
JUST4CARE works with cities and communities to strengthen urban climate resilience by embedding justice, equity and inclusion into climate adaptation.
We do this by combining climate data, AI-supported risk assessment, local knowledge, participatory methods and municipal capacity building. Our aim is not only to test adaptation actions, but to understand whether they are fair, useful and transferable.
Across Madrid, Çankaya, Budapest and Zagreb, the project develops and tests strategies that respond to everyday climate risks — heat, flooding, lack of shade, limited access to safe public space, housing stress and unequal capacity to adapt — while learning how other cities across Europe can apply these lessons.
What JUST4CARE does
Develop and test.
We develop and test equitable climate adaptation tools and methods in four pilot cities, focusing on places and communities more exposed to climate risks and with fewer resources to protect themselves.
Integrate.
We connect AI-supported risk assessment with on-the-ground community action, so that data, modelling and local experience can inform each other.
Build capacity.
We support local governments and frontline organisations to plan, implement and evaluate climate adaptation in ways that are inclusive, accountable and sensitive to unequal impacts.
Create replicable learning.
We turn lessons from pilot cities into practical tools, frameworks and guidance that other cities and regions can use to strengthen just climate adaptation.
Our approach in six actions
- Assess and evaluate
We map climate risks together with social vulnerabilities, using climate data, environmental information, local knowledge and AI-supported tools. This helps identify not only where risk is highest, but who may be less able to adapt and why. - Build capacity
We work with public administrations, local partners and technical teams to strengthen their ability to design and implement inclusive climate adaptation. This includes training, governance tools and spaces for institutional learning. - Co-design
We work directly with communities, local authorities and frontline organisations to understand needs, priorities and possible unintended effects. Co-design helps ensure that adaptation is not done “for” communities, but shaped with them. - Engage
We create participatory spaces where people and organisations who are often left out of climate decisions can share knowledge, question priorities and influence how adaptation is designed. - Implement
We support pilot cities to co-create and test adaptation actions on the ground, from public space improvements and cooling strategies to governance practices, monitoring systems and community-based approaches. - Share and replicate
We document what works, what does not work and what needs to be adapted to local context. These lessons are translated into tools, resources and replication packages for other cities across Europe.
Methods and tools
JUST4CARE combines scientific evidence, local knowledge and participatory governance. Our methods are designed to measure not only whether adaptation is effective, but whether it is fair: who benefits, who participates, who may be left out and what safeguards are needed.
AI-supported risk assessment
JUST4CARE uses AI-supported risk assessment to combine climate, social and environmental data. These tools help cities understand where climate risks overlap with social inequalities, and where adaptation should be prioritised.
Participatory methodologies
Workshops, co-design sessions, focus groups and Local Urban Parliaments create spaces for residents, local organisations, municipal teams and experts to work together. Methods are adapted to local languages, cultures, accessibility needs and community contexts.
Evaluation framework
JUST4CARE develops a framework to assess whether adaptation actions are truly just. This means looking beyond technical performance to examine fairness, access, participation, distribution of benefits and possible unintended harms.
Capacity building and governance
The project supports public administrations and local partners through training, governance tools and policy innovation activities. This helps cities embed justice-oriented adaptation into everyday planning, decision-making and implementation.
Events and international exchange
JUST4CARE creates spaces for cities, researchers, civil society organisations and policymakers to exchange knowledge across local, national and European levels. These include policy roundtables, public forums, climate justice dialogues and international events.
Key outputs
JUST4CARE will produce practical resources for cities, communities, researchers and policymakers. These outputs will be developed progressively during the project and shared through the website as they become available.
Just Climate Resilience Atlas (in progress)
An online atlas documenting equitable climate adaptation actions across Europe, helping cities identify examples, criteria and lessons that can inform their own work.
AI-enhanced ARIES platform (In progress. You can find out more on the Aries project page)
A platform that supports climate risk assessment by integrating climate, social and environmental indicators, with attention to equity and justice.
Evaluation framework (in progress)
A structured framework to help assess whether climate adaptation actions are effective, inclusive and fair.
Climate Justice Governance Tool (in progress)
A self-assessment tool for local governments to reflect on how justice is embedded in their climate adaptation planning, governance and implementation.
Training curricula (coming soon) and Replication packages (coming later)
Customised training programmes for pilot cities, public administrators and local actors working on equitable climate adaptation and practical guides and learning materials to help follower cities and other interested cities adapt JUST4CARE methods to their own contexts.
Urban Parliaments (coming soon) to draft the European Declaration of Urban Rights for Climate Resilience (In progress. You can find out more on the Urban Rights project page)
Community-based forums in each pilot city where local knowledge, lived experience and public decision-making are brought into dialogue, connecting local experiences with wider European debates on climate justice and urban rights.
Want to learn more about how JUST4CARE works in each city? Explore our pilot cities and follow the project’s resources as they become available.