Munich Climate Resilience Initiative (MCRI)

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Preamble

Climate change poses unprecedented challenges to societies, economies, and ecosystems across the world. While the scientific community has made remarkable progress in understanding risks, vulnerabilities, and impacts, the global response still falls short of enabling societies to adapt, transform, and thrive amid climatic emergency and uncertainty. Building resilience has become an imperative for sustainable and equitable development.

The International Climate Resilience Conference (iCARE 2025), held in Munich from 26–29 October 2025, gathered leading researchers, policymakers, practitioners, and community representatives to exchange knowledge and experience across 17 thematic sessions and over 200 presentations. Participants shared a clear message: advancing climate resilience requires robust collaboration among scientists, policymakers, and practitioners across disciplines, sectors, and regions.

The Munich Climate Resilience Initiative (MCRI) arises from this shared commitment to promote resilience thinking in research, practice, and policy.

1. Rethinking Climate Resilience

Resilience is not merely about resistance or recovery but about adaptation, learning, and transformation, which together form the foundation for a better tomorrow. It connects environmental sustainability, ecological integrity, social equity, economic stability, cultural heritage safeguarding and institutional flexibility.

The MCRI calls for resilience-centered approaches, which celebrate progress, creativity, and the capacity for renewal and transformation, in addition to the risk-centered narratives, which emphasize vulnerability and loss. Resilience must also be guided by principles of justice and inclusion—ensuring that vulnerable populations are empowered rather than left behind in adaptation and transition processes.

2. Advancing Knowledge and Innovation

Scientific understanding of climate resilience remains fragmented. The MCRI promotes integrated, transdisciplinary, and co-creative research that bridges science, policy, and practice. It encourages:

• Interdisciplinary collaboration between natural, social, and engineering sciences as well as the humanities;

• Comparative and long-term studies to understand how resilience evolves across contexts, sectors and for different (compound and consecutive) hazards，and build predictive future scenarios and effective early-warning systems;

• Responsible use of AI, big data, Earth observation, digital twins and others, as well as the fusion of multi-type data;

• Knowledge system co-production with communities, policy-makers and practitioners to ensure relevance and impact.

The Initiative supports the creation of a Global Network for Climate Resilience Studies to enhance data sharing, joint research, exchange among institutions worldwide, and guide science-based policy making.

3. Strengthening Policy and Governance

Resilience must be embedded in international, national, regional, and local governance frameworks. The MCRI calls for:

• An integrated approach to resilience through promoting synergies and alignment between disaster risk reduction, knowledge exchange, adaptation plans, sectoral strategies, and financing frameworks;

• Balanced decentralization and coordination in governance systems, empowering communities and local actors in relevant policy making;

• ● Inclusive decision-making that values genders’ and ages’ balance, indigenous peoples and local community, and marginalized groups;

• ● Policy coherence linking mitigation, adaptation, loss and damage and resilience across governance levels at the different time scales

The MCRI further recommends the use of Resilience Impact Assessments in major infrastructure and policy initiatives to align development with long-term sustainability goals.

4. Mobilizing Partnerships and Collaboration

Achieving climate resilience demands partnerships beyond academia. The MCRI calls for partnerships and collaboration among governments, research institutions, businesses, and civil society to:

• Facilitate case-to-case learning and knowledge exchange on resilience building;

• Develop resilience financing mechanisms, including climate funds and social investment;

• Promote private-sector engagement in activities and events for resilience enhancement;

• Strengthen education, training, and communication for resilience, especially in more vulnerable regions.

Through these partnerships, the MCRI seeks to foster a global community dedicated to transformative, inclusive, and sustainable resilience.

5. Call to Action

The participants of iCARE 2025 commit to:

1. Advance the science of climate resilience through cooperation and open exchange;
2. Integrate resilience principles into institutions, projects, and policies;
3. Share data, innovations, and best practices for global benefit;
4. Advocate for resilience thinking in international and local climate agendas;
5. Support training and communication that inspire empowerment and proactive adaptation.

Resilience is a continuous process of learning and transformation—an essential pathway toward a sustainable and equitable future. The Munich Climate Resilience Initiative invites all scientists, policymakers, and practitioners to join this collective effort to strengthen climate resilience for people and the planet.

Adopted in Munich, Germany, on 29 October 2025

By the participants of the International Climate Resilience Conference (iCARE 2025), hosted by Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (LMU Munich) and international partners.