News Archive
Knowledge for Action in Prevention and Preparedness (KAPP) call open for submissions
05 Feb 2024The Knowledge for Action in Prevention and Preparedness (KAPP) call for proposals is open for submission. Participants of the EU Civil Protection Mechanism on disaster prevention and preparedness who have a plan to adapt to climate change can hand in a proposal until 25 April 2024.
First German Adaptation Law to enter into force by mid 2024
26 Jan 2024The new climate adaptation law, adopted in December 2023, defines the strategic framework for future climate adaptation at federal, state and local levels in Germany. This framework is designed to coordinate climate adaptation efforts on all levels and to enable progress across all fields of action. With the law, the German government also commits to pursuing a precautionary climate adaptation strategy with measurable goals in future.
2023 is the hottest year on record, with global temperatures close to the 1.5°C limit
12 Jan 2024A year featuring extreme events across the globe is now officially Earth's hottest year on record, according to Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) analysis. The C3S Global Climate Highlight report for 2023 shows that 2023 was 1.48°C warmer than the 1850-1900 pre-industrial reference level with close to half of the days in 2023 exceeding the 1.5°C warming limit, and also surpassing the previous highest annual value, reached in 2016.
Expert meeting held on Remote Sensing-based bark beetle outbreak detection and mapping
18 Dec 2023In Europe, recent bark beetle outbreaks have garnered much attention as they have affected large swathes of spruce forests, particularly in central and Eastern Europe. Remote sensing is instrumental in revealing and understanding global change and much progress has been made in using it to monitor bark beetle outbreaks. On 22 November 2022, an online JRC Expert Meeting reviewed the state-of-the-art and challenges in using remote sensing to detect and map bark beetle outbreaks in Europe. It was attended by more than 40 scientists and representatives of three European Commission DGs.
Wildfires in the EU: 2022 was the second-worst year, a warning from a changing climate
18 Dec 2023In 2022, land area roughly the size of Corsica was scorched by wildfires in the EU, according to the latest JRC report on fires in the pan-European region. Nearly 900,000 ha of land burnt in 2022, of which approximately 365,000 ha belong to Natura 2000 sites, according to the recently published report 'Forest Fires in Europe, Middle East and North Africa 2022'.
Monitoring to improve resilience of European forests
18 Dec 2023The European Commission is proposing a Forest Monitoring Law that will plug existing gaps in the information on European forests and create a comprehensive forest knowledge base, to allow Member States, forest owners and forest managers to improve their response to growing pressures on forests and strengthen forest resilience.
Open call launched for regions and communities on climate risk assessment
11 Dec 2023The EU funded CLIMAAX (Climate risk and vulnerability assessment framework and toolbox) project has launched the first Open Call for regions and communities that will implement the CLIMAAX methodological framework (based on the framework of the EU Mission on Climate Adaptation) and the supporting Climate Risk Assessment Toolbox, to carry out their regional and local multi-risk assessments. Deadline for submission is 8 March 2024.
Communication of the European Commission on the management of future climate risks: Have your say!
08 Dec 2023In response to the first ever European Climate Risk Assessment report, which the European Environment Agency (EEA) will publish in spring 2024, the European Commission will draw up a Communication on how to manage the climate risks identified in the report. The aim is to ensure that policymakers can make explicit and informed decisions about the acceptability of risks and the trade-offs involved in mitigating them. Notably, the Communication will identify areas that are key to addressing these climate risks in the Commission's future work programmes, multiannual programmes, and policy proposals.
Participatory fire-management strategies
07 Dec 2023Research, funded by the Spanish Ministry for the Ecological Transition, has been exploring participatory fire-management strategies. The researchers note that integrating landscape values through a participatory multi-criteria approach can be a cost-effective adaptation activity to help local communities save valued areas when wildfires occur.
EU Solidarity Fund grants €100 million of advance payment to Slovenia following the summer floods
07 Dec 2023The European Commission has approved an advance payment of €100 million to Slovenia under the European Union Solidarity Fund (EUSF), to ease the financial burden of reconstruction and clean-up efforts, and implementing adaptation measures, after the damage caused by the devastating floods that took place in the country in August 2023.