Drawing up a National Climate Change Adaptation Policy: Feedback from five european case studies

Adapting to climate change raises a large number of research, assessment, governance and implementation issues, often differing from those raised by mitigation policies. The aim of this report is to review the institutional processes for drawing up adaptation policies in five European countries (Germany, Spain, France, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom) and to highlight the decisive factors for drawing up adaptation policies and measures.
A comparative analysis of their policies has been made to highlight not only their differences and their common features, and has provided indication of the key points that apparently need to be addressed in all adaptation policies, namely: i) high-level research into both local climate change impacts and socio-techno-economic solutions; ii) an appropriate institutional framework and the involvement of stakeholders, which is institutionalized according to the country’s economic and political environment, and iii) the identification of key issues and of potential measures that can be implemented, which are often linked to existing sector or local policies.