Getting Ready for İzmir – Host City, Venue and Field Visit

With the first Cli-Met Workshop with Stakeholders approaching, we take a closer look at the city hosting the event, the venue where the workshop will take place, and the local experience that participants will explore during the final-day field visit.

From 28 to 30 September 2026, Cli-Met partners, public officers, researchers, practitioners and local and international stakeholders will meet in İzmir, Türkiye, for three days dedicated to metropolitan climate action.

İzmir and the metropolitan climate agenda

İzmir is a major metropolitan city on Türkiye’s Aegean coast, characterised by a Mediterranean climate with hot, dry summers and mild, rainy winters. The city has progressively integrated climate mitigation and adaptation into its metropolitan agenda through the Sustainable Energy and Climate Action Plan and the Green City Action Plan, addressing areas including energy, mobility, water management, land use, biodiversity and climate resilience.

İzmir also participates in the EU Mission for Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities and continues to develop its climate action framework. Recent resilience initiatives have addressed climate-related risks including heatwaves, drought, flooding, sea-level rise and forest fires, while exploring adaptation measures at metropolitan, district and neighbourhood scales.

As a Cli-Met partner, İzmir Metropolitan Municipality (İzmir Büyükşehir Belediyesi) contributes the perspective of a large metropolitan authority actively engaged in climate neutrality, clean energy, environmental sustainability and climate adaptation. The Municipality brings practical knowledge from its ongoing initiatives to the project and hosts the first Cli-Met Workshop with Stakeholders, connecting international expertise with local policies, experiences and challenges.

The venue – Tarihi Havagazı Fabrikası

The workshop will take place at Tarihi Havagazı Fabrikası, the Historic Gasworks Factory, one of İzmir’s landmark examples of industrial heritage.

Construction of the gasworks began in 1862, during a period of rapid industrial development in the city, and the complex played an important role in İzmir’s urban infrastructure for more than a century.

Following the end of its industrial use, İzmir Metropolitan Municipality restored the registered buildings and transformed the site into a cultural and social venue. Reopened after restoration in 2008, the complex today accommodates exhibitions, workshops, cultural events and public gatherings, giving new life to an important part of the city’s industrial heritage.

Find out more about Tarihi Havagazı Fabrikası →

From discussion to local experience: Kadifekale

The third and final day of the workshop will take participants to the Kadifekale community garden, providing an opportunity to explore the connections between urban regeneration, environmental resilience and community-based action.

The wider Agora–Kemeraltı–Kadifekale area has been at the centre of efforts to revitalise İzmir’s historic urban core while preserving cultural heritage and improving public spaces. Kadifekale also illustrates how environmental risk and social policies can intersect in processes of urban transformation.

Areas exposed to landslide risk have undergone relocation, demolition and greening programmes, including the creation of a large urban forest. More recently, the Kadifekale Neighbourhood Garden (Mahalle Bostanı) has introduced community-based urban agriculture, providing local women with spaces for food production, social interaction and mutual support.

The field visit will therefore allow participants to engage directly with a local experience connecting urban agriculture, community participation and neighbourhood-level climate resilience.

Three days of exchange, co-creation and exploration

The Workshop with Stakeholders is conceived as a meeting space between academic research, metropolitan governance and professional practice.

Day 1 – Exchange
Keynote sessions and international and local panel discussions.

Day 2 – Co-create
Parallel thematic working groups addressing climate risks and spatial planning, water–energy–mobility adaptation, social vulnerability and community resilience, and governance and institutional coordination.

Day 3 – Explore
Field visit to the Kadifekale community garden.

Explore the full programme →

Organisation

Local Organising Committee
Dr. Çağlar Tükel, Ahmet Dildan, Dr. Gülşah Ünsalan, Yiğit Beydağ, Nilgün Özmen, Aylin Cengiz

With support from the Cli-Met Project Team
Ignazio Vinci, João Igreja, Karsten Zimmermann, Sonia De Gregorio Hurtado, Çağlar Tükel, Cinzia Davoli, Peter Agh, Viviana Rubbo