Urban adaptation to climate change in Europe - Challenges and opportunities for cities together with supportive national and European policies

From a European perspective, this report informs about the key challenges that climate change poses to cities and the need for urban adaptation. It positions the urban challenges in the larger policy frameworks provided by regional, national and European institutions and it gives a summary overview of opportunities for solutions. As such, the report addresses stakeholders involved in urban development at local and city level as well as at regional, national and European level. It aims to support policy development and decision-making across all these levels. This report takes key policy questions for specific climate-related problems, which are common for groups of cities, as the starting point of the assessment. It presents: - the most important potential impacts of climate change on cities in Europe: it characterises cities in terms of their vulnerability or adaptive capacity to climate change due to factors such as geographic position, urban design, size, wealth or governance system; - a range of adaptation responses for different spatial levels; - the challenges and opportunities for multi-level governance in the relevant policy frameworks.