While significant progress has been made in planning climate change adaptation policies, the European Environment Agency (EEA) deplores a lack of preparation and calls on the European Union to speed up the implementation of measures.
To support its 32 Member States (the EU plus Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Switzerland and Turkey), the EU agency dedicated to preserving and monitoring Europe’s environment published on Wednesday 26 June a set of Climate-ADAPT case studies - a dedicated online platform developed by the EEA and the European Commission - to present a range of implemented adaptation practices and measures.
The document “Preparing society for climate risks in Europe - lessons and inspiration from Climate-ADAPT case studies” brings together examples applicable to different levels of governance and policy sectors in European countries, which can facilitate peer-to-peer learning.
In Slovakia, for example, a programme to restore catchment areas has led to the creation of independent advisory councils, encouraging community involvement and a cross-disciplinary approach. In Germany, urban adaptation in the North Rhine-Westphalia region has adopted a multi-level governance approach to meet the needs of small rural municipalities.
Although the Climate-ADAPT case studies cover many risks, gaps remain in the areas of food, the economy and finance, according to the EEA. In addition, the predominance of local examples makes it difficult to improve preparedness for extreme cross-border events.
The case studies explore the potential co-benefits and trade-offs of adaptation measures, while noting that there is still room for improvement in monitoring, evaluation and learning to assess the effectiveness of these actions and avoid maladaptation.
Future development of the Climate-ADAPT case studies will focus on reducing specific risks identified by the EUCRA, the European Climate Risk Assessment, published on 11 March by the EEA (see EUROPE 13368/11), which pointed to the need to generalise and intensify adaptation actions at all levels of governance in order to deal with escalating climate risks.
The aim would therefore be to fill the gaps in terms of regions, sectors and levels of governance. For the EEA, collaboration with its member countries is essential.
The report: https://aeur.eu/f/ctv (Original version in French by Nithya Paquiry)