Brussels, 17/04/2013 (Agence Europe) - Moving into top gear in adapting to climate change - a vital corollary to reducing greenhouse gas emissions - and better financial defence against increasingly frequent disasters by means of appropriate insurance regimes is the ambition cherished by the European Commission for the European Union and is the subject of two initiatives which were adopted by the College of Commissioners on Tuesday 16 April.
The communication on adaptation, which was prepared by the services of Connie Hedegaard, European Commissioner for Climate Action, lays the foundation for a European adaptation strategy by establishing a framework and mechanisms which are capable of helping the EU to strengthen its resilience to global warming, which has already produced its effects throughout Europe, with its cortege of extreme weather conditions becoming more frequent. This strategy favours inexpensive adaptation solutions which are beneficial to the economy and the environment. It will be debated by the informal Dublin Environment Council (22-23 April) and in Brussels on 29 April at a conference of the stakeholders to be organised by the Commission.
The Commission intends to encourage all member states to adopt adaptation strategies and to make funding available to help them to build their adaptation capacity and to take measures. It will also lend its support to the authorities by launching a voluntary commitment based on the model of the Covenant of Mayors. The EU's action will promote adaptation in the most vulnerable sectors, such as agriculture and fisheries, and will continue to encourage its integration into the cohesion policy in order to ensure the resilience of the European infrastructures. At the same time, it will encourage the use of insurance against disasters of natural or human origin. Knowledge must also be improved on adaptation and the European Climate-ADAPT platform must be reinforced by making it into a single information point. The Commission hopes that by encouraging robust investment in climate change, this strategy will create new jobs in the construction, water management, insurance, agricultural technology and ecosystem management sectors.
The Green Paper on insurance against disasters of natural or human origin, which was prepared by the services of Commissioner Barnier, has launched the debate, to continue until 30 June, on the availability of existing insurance formulae in the member states and on their adaptation to current needs, in order to determine whether the measures taken at EU level could be appropriate. In both cases, the Commission is guided by a need to make savings - savings in human lives, healthcare, material damage and the environment - as the minimum cost of not adapting has been put at €100 billion a year by 2020 and €250 billion by 2050 for the whole of the European Union. (AN/transl.fl)