Dr. Bengü Özge Akyurek is an expert at the European Environment Agency (EEA), where she works on climate risk, adaptation, and the resilience of Europe’s agri-food systems. She holds a PhD in Mechanical Engineering from the University of California, San Diego, where her research focused on energy.
Her current work explores how climate extremes are transforming Europe’s agri-food systems and security, tracing their impacts from farm-level production to market stability, economic resilience, wider socio-economic outcomes.
In the “Farming with Nature” session, she will draw on her EEA briefing, “Building climate-resilient agriculture in Europe: an economic perspective”, to explain climate-resilient agriculture from a farm-level economic perspective. Her contribution will show how climate extremes translate into economic pressure through yield losses, rising input costs, production volatility, and greater exposure to shocks. She will argue that resilience is not only an environmental objective, but an economic strategy for keeping farms viable: reducing dependence on costly external inputs and supporting more stable farm performance under increasing climate risk.
She is the author of the EEA briefing “Building climate-resilient agriculture in Europe: an economic perspective” and “Managing climate risks to the economy” in the State of the Environment Report 2025 report. Her work bridges climate science, data analytics and policy, helping translate evidence into practical resilience strategies for Europe.