Evaluation of the EU Strategy on adaptation to climate change

Description

The European Commission’s evaluation of the EU Adaptation Strategy finds that the strategy has delivered on its objectives to promote action by Member States, ‘climate-proof’ action at the EU level and support better-informed decision-making. Progress has been recorded against each of its eight individual actions, including the development of the online platform Climate-ADAPT. Nevertheless, the evaluation outlines how Europe is still vulnerable to climate impacts within and outside its borders and suggests areas where more work needs to be done to prepare vulnerable regions and sectors.

Key findings from the evaluation:

• The current strategy is still relevant and the Commission will be guided by its objectives. Important lessons have been learned in the evaluation process. The strategy has been a reference point to prepare Europe for the climate impacts to come, at all levels.
• Knowledge, adaptation modelling and region-specific intelligence has been generated by the EU's Horizon 2020 research programme and projects and by the Commission’s own internal scientific services (Joint Research Centre).
• Major infrastructure projects financed by the EU budget have become climate-proof and will withstand sea level rise, flooding or intense heat.
• In the future, an effort must be made to ensure most or all EU cities count on a thorough adaptation plan to protect citizens from both extreme and slow-onset climate hazards. The plans should also cater for specific vulnerabilities of certain communities (e.g. the EU's Outermost Regions) and the different risks faced by the very diverse regions in the European continent.
• Adaptation must support and be supported by the protection of the EU's biodiversity (nature-based solutions).
• The contribution of the private sector to enhance society's resilience must be encouraged: the Commission's efforts will continue to be channelled through its Action Plan on Financing Sustainable Growth and the subsequent legislative proposals adopted in 2018.
• Climate services for specific adaptation needs should develop into business opportunities, based on reliable and standardised data and the incentives provided by Copernicus and other European Earth observation initiatives.

The evaluation was carried out using workshops, a targeted stakeholder survey and a public consultation. The aim of the evaluation was to examine the implementation and performance of the Strategy, looking at its relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, coherence and EU added value. Also, the evaluation included the ‘adaptation preparedness scoreboard’ for measuring Member States’ level of readiness based on qualitative, process-based indicators.

EEA contributed to the evaluation of the EU Adaptation Strategy. On Action 5, a detailed evaluation of the European Climate Adaptation Platform (Climate-ADAPT) (EEA, 2018) was conducted by the EEA, with the support of the ETC/CCA, looking at the same evaluation criteria as the overall evaluation of the EU Adaptation Strategy.  

Results of the evaluation were published in November 2018.  

Reference information