News Archive

In 2023, storms battered the Hauts-de-France Region in France and the Aa river delta was flooded. This experience revealed how vulnerable the low-lying region is to climate change. The institutions in charge turned to EU-funded Interreg Europe to explore adaptation options to build resilience against both floods and droughts. This work led to a peer review study from Belgium, Estonia, the Netherlands, Spain, and the United Kingdom. As part of this work, water management governance, the possibility of using nature-based solutions, such as meadow areas and flood plains, were discussed and shared with stakeholders from across the region.

The Technology Executive Committee (TEC), the policy arm of the United Nations Climate Change Technology Mechanism, is committed to boost cooperation on climate technology deployment to adapt to climate change, especially in regions hit hardest by the climate crisis. Countries should integrate technology considerations into their national climate plans, for instance by realizing early warning systems in support of risk-informed climate resilience policy and action. The TEC met recently in Bonn, Germany to highlight recent successes to scale up climate action through technological innovation.

This years European Climate Risk Assessment of the European Environment Agency concludes that Europe is the fastest-warming continent in the world including downpours severe droughts. Monitoring the impacts of meteorological droughts supports policy measures that target greenhouse gas removals and the adaptation of ecosystems to climate change. Drought impacts may increase further if global mitigation and EU and national adaptation strategies are not effectively implemented. Fortunately, drought is used as a headline indicator in the reporting on the 8th Environmental Action Programme.

The EU funded Climateurope2 project is working to improve quality standards of climate services to ensure they are trustworthy and effective and invites stakeholders to take part in an important survey that will help to guide this effort. By sharing insights, participating stakeholders can contribute to the creation of standardization procedures that support both adaptation and mitigation efforts.

EU-funded research by the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) resulted in an in-depth analysis of regional variations in socio economic vulnerability across the EU, highlighting how demographic, health, and socioeconomic factors shape the capacity of populations to withstand climate extremes. In regions with significant aging populations, the combination of physical frailty and socioeconomic challenges exacerbates vulnerability, expected to make adaption efforts more difficult.

Climate change is disrupting weather patterns and further increasing pressures on our water resources and ecosystems. According to an assessment of the European Environment Agency (EEA), Europe's water management practices are poorly adapted to cope with such rapid and large-scale change, which will compromise water security. Better water management is key to improve water resilience, to alleviate pressures on water and to ensure European citizens, nature and industry have enough good-quality water.

The European Court of Auditors assessed the EU’s climate adaptation framework and how a selection of EU adaptation projects addressed the impacts of climate change. They found that the overall EU framework for adaptation policy was sound but there were weaknesses and gaps in its implementation.

How do we anchor environment and climate priorities with other emerging ones like security, competitiveness and fairness without losing sight of the long-term sustainability objective of ‘living well within the limits of our planet’? Europe’s Sustainability Transitions Outlook report, published by the European Environment Agency (EEA), calls for the need to further align European economic, social and security policies with the climate and environmental objectives.

In September, the European Commission hosted a high-level roundtable on how to manage climate risks and damages including to consider vulnerable groups of society. Participants called for bold action on climate resilience and discussed structural changes, actionable tools and financing for the future. The roundtable provided an opportunity for exchange ahead of the preparation of the European Climate Adaptation Plan.

The winners of the German Federal "Blue Compass" Award 2024 have been announced The prizes, each worth 25,000 euros, were awarded to five outstanding climate adaptation projects in the areas of heavy rainfall prevention, disaster prevention, heat resilience and flood protection. A community prize was also awarded via online voting

The ' Municipal Survey on Climate Adaptation 2023' report presents the findings of the representative national survey, done on behalf of the German Environment Agency. It provides a comprehensive and differentiated picture of the status and progress of municipal climate adaptation in Germany and thus serves as an important framework for political decision-makers at federal, state and local level. Related to the 2024 Federal Climate Adaptation Act (KAnG), the survey results show that municipalities have already started to adapt to climate change impacts, but also numerous challenges that still need to be overcome.

The Federal Government is currently developing the 2008 German Adaptation Strategy into a new, precautionary adaptation strategy to climate change. In autumn 2023, the “Dialogue on Climate Adaptation - Mastering Life in a Changing Climate Together” involved experts from federal states, scientific community and associations as well as citizens. The report summarizes the results of the nationwide participation process with several formats and bundles the stakeholder and citizens recommendations for the seven clusters of the adaptation strategy. The report is written in German, but contains an English summary.

NATURANCE is a 3.5-year Horizon Europe project which examines the technical, financial and operational feasibility and performance of solutions built on a combination of disaster risk financing and Nature-based Solutions (NbS) investments. As part of this project, Naturethons, citizen group meetings, have tapped into the collective understanding of NbS deployment and stimulated discussions around their financial mechanisms and instruments.

The relaunched portal with improved user friendliness features knowledge, practical advice, interactive tools, and a catalogue of projects that can serve as inspiration related to climate adaptation in Denmark. It offers tailored entry points for three user groups. Next to the Danish version, an English portal offers guidelines for international visitors and English-speaking residents. The portal is administered by the Danish Environmental Protection Agency in cooperation with several ministeries, agencies and organisations.

Two regional programmes, embedded in the European Commission's Rural Pact, support rural municipalities in Austria in achieving EU climate targets by implementing local projects through a network of experts and citizens. For example, the Climate Change Adaptation Model Regions (KLAR!) programme helps Austrian municipalities and regions in provincial capital and in rural areas across the country. The programmes have gained momentum, as demonstrated by a high number of projects and participation of key stakeholders. KLAR! involves 87 Climate Change Adaptation Model Regions covering 741 municipalities and 2.13 million inhabitants.

Floods take lives, destroy infrastructure, damage biodiversity and lead to high economic losses. A warming above 3°C could double the costs of damage and people affected by precipitation and river flooding. European Commission's Joint Research Centre scientists have developed a tool to estimate flood water depth and improve the accuracy of flood extent maps, which can help to decide which means to allocate (e.g. helicopter or boat) and the equipment and quantity to use (e.g. hoses and water pumps).

The European Environment Agency briefing ‘Healthy seas, thriving fisheries: transitioning to an environmentally sustainable sector’ provides an overview of the environmental state of European fisheries and identifies concrete options to help achieve a competitive and sustainable fishing industry in the long-term.

The EU-funded REACHOUT project has boosted collaboration across various European cities through co-creation hubs to come up with a comprehensive and flexible set of resources (Triple-A Toolkit). The toolkit aims to support communities in understanding climate-related risks, the design of adaptation options and transformations and taking action to build resilience. This policy brief aims to share key lessons and case studies from REACHOUT City Hubs approaches to engage co-creation when developing climate services and tools in urban environments.

The final report of the Climate Resilience Dialogue puts forward actions for increasing climate resilience in the EU and addressing the climate protection gap, with a focus on adaptation measures. The European Commission welcomes the report and will reflect on the solutions presented in the report in its next mandate.

The World Bank aims to clarify the challenges posed by urban overheating within the EU and studied the adaptation efforts spanning various governance levels. This report offers insights into the effectiveness, scalability, and potential for replication of adaptation measures at EU, national, and local level.

This EU Horizon 2020 funded Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) is provided by the IMPETUS project in collaboration with the SDGAcademy. It offers a holistic view of climate adaptation, covering a wide range of topics: Climate Change Science & Policy, Innovative Adaptation Solutions, Data and Digital Technologies, Socio-Economic Narratives & Financial Instruments and Skills for the Future. The introductory MOOC is tailored for a broad audience, including policy makers and does not require a course fee.

Climate-ADAPT case studies serve as inspiration on how adaptation options can be implemented in practice under a range of different conditions. A new search option, the 'Adaptation approaches' filter, allows to search for case studies reporting on environmental, social and economic co-benefits and trade-offs, cost-benefit analysis as well as the replication/upscaling potential of adaptation actions to support learning on transformative adaptation.

The 15th webinar, broadcast by the Climate-ADAPT team, informed on how the platform updates inform the upcoming EU policy framework on adaptation to climate change. Those upgrades include a new user interface of the platform with improved performance and layout, an interactive viewer of the European Climate Risk Assessment (EUCRA), and the new Regional Adaptation Support Tool (RAST). The webinar also promoted a new EEA Policy briefing on the learning potential of Climate-ADAPT case studies for societal preparedness to climate change.

The Water Directors of the Member States and the European Commission adopted a guidance document to align river basin management planning with climate adaptation, with special attention to the Water Framework Directive and the Floods Directive. This guidance aims to help water managers to integrate adapting to the inevitable impacts of climate change, such as the increase of intensity and frequency of intensive rainfall, prolonged droughts, and heat waves as well as slow-onset changes like warming, spread of invasive species and sea level rise, with special attention to nature-based solutions, cross-border/transboundary aspects, as well as the climate check of measures.

The regulation sets binding targets to restore degraded ecosystems, amongst others to reduce the impact of natural disasters related to climate change, but also to halt the loss of urban green and increase urban green space and urban tree canopy cover for urban climate adaptation.