Climate change and the European water dimension – Enhancing resilience

This policy paper is a result of deliberations at the online conference 'Climate change and the European water dimension – Enhancing resilience' held on November 4-5, 2020, and provides recommendations for the European Commission and EU Member States on how to increase water-related climate resilience and initiate the transformational change required to ensure resilience in the future. The paper provides input for the current political debate and, in particular, the new EU Adaptation Strategy expected for early 2021. It also aims to influence targeted EU initiatives to enhance adaptation efforts at EU, Member State and transboundary levels.

The paper is intended to be comprehensive in scope rather than propose detailed measures for implementing the policy recommendations. A draft of this paper served as a basis for discussion among conference participants and was finalised in the followup by drawing on the outcomes. It builds on a background paper available on the conference website, which analyses in more detail the observed and expected climate change impacts, adaptation measures adopted to date, required action and possible entry points for EU activities.