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What is the EU Mission on Adaptation to Climate Change?
The Mission on Adaptation to Climate Change focuses on supporting EU regions, cities and local authorities in their efforts to build resilience against the impacts of climate change. The Mission’s objective is to accompany by 2030 at least 150 European regions and communities towards climate resilience. Read more about the EU Mission on Adaptation to Climate Change.
What does the Mission do?
The Mission contributes to delivery of the EU Adaptation Strategy by helping the regions and local authorities to:
Better understand the climate risks that they are and will be confronted with in the future
Develop their pathways to be better prepared and cope with the changing climate
Test and deploy on the ground innovative solutions needed to build resilience to climate change.
Why is this Mission important?
Dangerous climate change is almost upon us. We have already experienced more than a one degree rise in global temperatures since the industrial revolution. Even if the World’s countries succeed in delivering the reductions in carbon emissions detailed in their Nationally Determined Contributions to the Paris Agreement, we remain on course for more than a two degree rise in global temperatures by the end of this century.
Concurrently, the magnitude, frequency and synchrony of extreme weather events is increasing. These changes are already leading to direct and indirect impacts across all aspects of our economy, society, and environment. They may also lead to transnational spill-over effects on international trade, resource competition, regional conflict, migration, and the spread of diseases and invasive species.
Climate adaptation actions that can enhance our resilience to climate change will take many decades to implement. This is not only due to their scope and scale but also because they may take as long as it takes a tree to grow and deliver benefits. So, it is vital that regional and local authorities and communities act now with real urgency to prepare for the inevitable effects of climate change.
Climate mitigation and climate adaptation are two sides of the same coin. There is no point in reducing emissions in ways that are maladapted or lead to wider maladaptation and it is important that adaptation actions are implemented in ways that minimise carbon emissions.
What are EU Missions?
The European Commission has launched five Missions:
1. Adaptation to Climate Change
2. Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities
3. Restore our Ocean and Waters
These Missions aim to deliver concrete solutions to big societal challenges by putting research and innovation in combination with new forms of governance and collaboration, and stakeholder and citizen engagement.
The Missions address issues that really matter for citizens. They are grounded on the idea that complex societal challenges require coordinated and interdisciplinary efforts across Europe. They have a clear goal and a well-defined timeframe to help deliver concrete results with broad impact.
Who is developing this Mission Portal?
As part of the European Climate Adaptation Platform (Climate-ADAPT), the Mission Portal is developed by the European Commission, the European Environment Agency (EEA) and the Mission Implementation Platform (MIP4Adapt) team.
The Mission Portal is currently under development. New content and functionality will be available in the future.