Aktuelles Archiv

The Federal Government is currently developing the 2008 German Adaptation Strategy into a new, precautionary adaptation strategy to climate change. In autumn 2023, the “Dialogue on Climate Adaptation - Mastering Life in a Changing Climate Together” involved experts from federal states, scientific community and associations as well as citizens. The report summarizes the results of the nationwide participation process with several formats and bundles the stakeholder and citizens recommendations for the seven clusters of the adaptation strategy. The report is written in German, but contains an English summary.

NATURANCE is a 3.5-year Horizon Europe project which examines the technical, financial and operational feasibility and performance of solutions built on a combination of disaster risk financing and Nature-based Solutions (NbS) investments. As part of this project, Naturethons, citizen group meetings, have tapped into the collective understanding of NbS deployment and stimulated discussions around their financial mechanisms and instruments.

The relaunched portal with improved user friendliness features knowledge, practical advice, interactive tools, and a catalogue of projects that can serve as inspiration related to climate adaptation in Denmark. It offers tailored entry points for three user groups. Next to the Danish version, an English portal offers guidelines for international visitors and English-speaking residents. The portal is administered by the Danish Environmental Protection Agency in cooperation with several ministeries, agencies and organisations.

Two regional programmes, embedded in the European Commission's Rural Pact, support rural municipalities in Austria in achieving EU climate targets by implementing local projects through a network of experts and citizens. For example, the Climate Change Adaptation Model Regions (KLAR!) programme helps Austrian municipalities and regions in provincial capital and in rural areas across the country. The programmes have gained momentum, as demonstrated by a high number of projects and participation of key stakeholders. KLAR! involves 87 Climate Change Adaptation Model Regions covering 741 municipalities and 2.13 million inhabitants.

Floods take lives, destroy infrastructure, damage biodiversity and lead to high economic losses. A warming above 3°C could double the costs of damage and people affected by precipitation and river flooding. European Commission's Joint Research Centre scientists have developed a tool to estimate flood water depth and improve the accuracy of flood extent maps, which can help to decide which means to allocate (e.g. helicopter or boat) and the equipment and quantity to use (e.g. hoses and water pumps).

The European Environment Agency briefing ‘Healthy seas, thriving fisheries: transitioning to an environmentally sustainable sector’ provides an overview of the environmental state of European fisheries and identifies concrete options to help achieve a competitive and sustainable fishing industry in the long-term.

The EU-funded REACHOUT project has boosted collaboration across various European cities through co-creation hubs to come up with a comprehensive and flexible set of resources (Triple-A Toolkit). The toolkit aims to support communities in understanding climate-related risks, the design of adaptation options and transformations and taking action to build resilience. This policy brief aims to share key lessons and case studies from REACHOUT City Hubs approaches to engage co-creation when developing climate services and tools in urban environments.

The final report of the Climate Resilience Dialogue puts forward actions for increasing climate resilience in the EU and addressing the climate protection gap, with a focus on adaptation measures. The European Commission welcomes the report and will reflect on the solutions presented in the report in its next mandate.

The World Bank aims to clarify the challenges posed by urban overheating within the EU and studied the adaptation efforts spanning various governance levels. This report offers insights into the effectiveness, scalability, and potential for replication of adaptation measures at EU, national, and local level.

This EU Horizon 2020 funded Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) is provided by the IMPETUS project in collaboration with the SDGAcademy. It offers a holistic view of climate adaptation, covering a wide range of topics: Climate Change Science & Policy, Innovative Adaptation Solutions, Data and Digital Technologies, Socio-Economic Narratives & Financial Instruments and Skills for the Future. The introductory MOOC is tailored for a broad audience, including policy makers and does not require a course fee.

Climate-ADAPT case studies serve as inspiration on how adaptation options can be implemented in practice under a range of different conditions. A new search option, the 'Adaptation approaches' filter, allows to search for case studies reporting on environmental, social and economic co-benefits and trade-offs, cost-benefit analysis as well as the replication/upscaling potential of adaptation actions to support learning on transformative adaptation.

The 15th webinar, broadcast by the Climate-ADAPT team, informed on how the platform updates inform the upcoming EU policy framework on adaptation to climate change. Those upgrades include a new user interface of the platform with improved performance and layout, an interactive viewer of the European Climate Risk Assessment (EUCRA), and the new Regional Adaptation Support Tool (RAST). The webinar also promoted a new EEA Policy briefing on the learning potential of Climate-ADAPT case studies for societal preparedness to climate change.

The Water Directors of the Member States and the European Commission adopted a guidance document to align river basin management planning with climate adaptation, with special attention to the Water Framework Directive and the Floods Directive. This guidance aims to help water managers to integrate adapting to the inevitable impacts of climate change, such as the increase of intensity and frequency of intensive rainfall, prolonged droughts, and heat waves as well as slow-onset changes like warming, spread of invasive species and sea level rise, with special attention to nature-based solutions, cross-border/transboundary aspects, as well as the climate check of measures.

The regulation sets binding targets to restore degraded ecosystems, amongst others to reduce the impact of natural disasters related to climate change, but also to halt the loss of urban green and increase urban green space and urban tree canopy cover for urban climate adaptation.

The European Drought Observatory continuously monitors the development and impact of droughts within Europe and around the world. Above-average temperatures and heatwaves combined with low rainfall are impacting soil moisture and vegetation growth. Seasonal forecasts suggest this will continue, with warmer and slightly drier conditions this summer, particularly in southern Europe. Ongoing droughts lead to critical water shortages and threaten crops.

The Eurobarometer survey, conducted in June/July 2024, reveals that environmental issues and climate change is the 3rd ranking challenge in the EU. Environmental issues and climate change shared first place with irregular migration when it comes to what people want the EU to address as a priority. It implies that climate adaptation deserves high priority as well.

The Directorate-General for Financial Stability, Financial Services and Capital Markets Union takes stock of analytical work and policy responses carried out by the EU so far. It concludes amongst others that scenario analysis and stress testing are essential tools in evaluating climate-related financial risks. The report outlines sectoral stress tests' outcomes, showcasing how banks, insurers, pension funds, and asset managers are assessing and preparing for climate-related risks.

This third edition of NATO’s Climate Change and Security Impact Assessment (CCSIA) responds to the demand for increased Allied awareness of the impact of climate change on security. Expanding on the key findings of the 2023 edition, this report outlines the impact of various climate-related risks on NATO’s strategic environment, military assets and installations, missions and operations, as well as on NATO’s resilience and civil preparedness.

According to a report by the European Parliamentary Research Service, adaptation efforts should be led locally, by those most at risk, those who know the territory. The EU has been introducing tools, initiatives and strategies to enhance all aspects of climate change adaptation. While there are still barriers to the proper uptake of practical adaptation actions at the local level, in many cases solutions for overcoming them are already available.

How can Spain make progress in adapting to climate change? Within the EU Mission on Adaptation, and in an effort to promote coordinated action and innovative solutions, the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) and REDS-SDSN Spain organized a virtual workshop on 2 July 2024, aiming to foster knowledge exchange among partners of major European climate change adaptation projects.

After a record-breaking application process, the five best projects will be awarded during the ceremony on September 19, 2024. The 'Blauer Kompass' ('Blue Compass') Adaptation Award is the highest state award in Germany for climate adaptation projects, advertised by the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection (BMUV), and the German Environment Agency (UBA). This year's competition has attracted a record-braking 301 applications, of which 20 outstanding projects have been selected for nomination.

The EU Joint Research Centre released a policy brief with an overview of strategies, best practices, and policy tools to help local authorities in EU cities to manage extreme heat and risks.

A briefing from the European Environment Agency (EEA) shares lessons learnt from more than one hundred Climate-ADAPT case studies. The briefing addresses the climate risks identified in the 2024 European Climate Risk Assessment. It shows that sharing examples of adaptation actions can boost learning across the EU Member States and also for regional and local authorities to help societies better prepare for climate change.

From June 26 to 28, 2024, the European Urban Resilience Forum (EURESFO24), co-organized by REGILIENCE project, was held in the city of Valencia, Spain.

According to Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) data, the Earth just experienced its warmest day since records began. On July 22nd, 2024, the daily average global temperature reached a new record high of 17.16°C. This exceeds the previous record of 17.09°C set just one day before on July 21st, 2024 and 17.08°C set a year earlier on July 6th, 2023. As the planet continues to warm, it is anticipated that records will continue to be broken, underscoring the need for adaptation to climate change impacts.