The article 'How are cities planning to respond to climate change? Assessment of local climate plans from 885 cities in the EU-28', published in 2018 in the Journal of Cleaner Production, has been published in 2018. Assessment of local climate plans from 885 cities in the EU-28', published in 2018 in the Journal of Cleaner Production, has been awarded the 2019 José María Sarriegi Prize for Scientific Dissemination, awarded by the Catastrophe Observatory of the Aon Foundation Spain. Aon Foundation Spain.

Thirty European researchers from different climate change research institutions have joined forces to analyse the local climate action plans of 885 European cities in the 28 countries of the European Union. In the conclusions, they state that "progress is concentrated in large cities and also in northern Europe. 66% of cities have a mitigation and/or an adaptation plan. Only half of the cities are preparing for the impacts of climate change".

Marta Olazabal, co-author of the article, received the €1,000 prize from Pedro Tomey, President of the Disaster Observatory, and Rául Antón, Director of the School of Engineering Tecnun of the University of Navarra, during the Symposium on Climate Change of the Disaster Observatory of the Aon Foundation Spain, which was held on 7 November at the Postgraduate Campus in Madrid of the University of Navarra. The researcher declared that receiving this award is "a great honour to be the first to receive the José María Sarriegi prize and a great satisfaction to have participated in work of this calibre. The team of researchers has expanded and we continue working to analyse these policies in greater depth. This award helps and motivates us to continue our efforts".

The Jury of the Award, composed of representatives of Tecnun and the Chair of Disasters of the Aon Foundation Spain, after analysing the nominations submitted, has unanimously decided to distinguish this article because it makes an exhaustive study of the climate change mitigation and adaptation plans that exist in European cities. The article classifies the plans into three types according to their nature and provides very interesting statistics that can serve as a starting point for future research in this field. The prestige of the journal in which the article has been published has also been taken into account, as the Journal of Cleaner Production has an impact index of 6.395 and is indexed in the first quartile of the JCR (Journal of Citation Report).

Pedro Tomey declared that "we at the Aon Foundation and our Observatory are confident that this award will undoubtedly contribute to stimulating and strengthening the progress of research in the field of disasters to which Sarriegi, one of the founders of the Observatory, was devoted".

José María Sarriegi Prize for Scientific Dissemination

The Aon Spain Foundation and its Disaster Observatory, with the creation of the José María Sarriegi Scientific Dissemination Award for the best academic research article on disaster-related topics, aim to honour the memory of the academic and researcher of Tecnun, one of the founders of the Observatory, who passed away in December 2018 as a result of a sports accident.

José María Sarriegi, professor and PhD in industrial engineering at Tecnun, was deputy director of research at this School of Engineering of the University of Navarra since 2016. He was principal investigator in European, national and regional projects and for 24 years his teaching work extended to fields such as computer science, information systems, modelling and simulation, knowledge management and project development. He was supervisor of more than 350 bachelor's, master's and master's degree projects. The last of these, as part of the Aon Foundation's Disaster Chair and together with Professor Leire Labaka, was Patricia Maraña's doctoral thesis on the resilience of cities in crisis situations, in which she analysed public-private collaboration systems in five cities around the world to prevent and respond to catastrophic situations.

This award, which from now on will bear Sarri's name, represents very well the professional and personal values treasured by this exceptional teacher of engineers. His example of integrity, enthusiasm, professionalism and human qualities are and will be an example for many students and teachers. José María Sarriegi used to say that we can always emerge stronger from catastrophes.