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The Adaptation Support Tool – Getting started

Adaptation to climate change

Why adapting to climate change should be considered, given other challenges? According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) warming of the climate system is unequivocal with human activities as the dominant cause since the mid-20th century. This relates to warming of the atmosphere and the ocean, changes in the global water cycle, reductions in snow and ice, in global mean sea level rise, and to changes in some climate extremes. The effects of global warming are already seen and will continue to do so for many years to come. Adaptation strategies are needed at all levels of administration: at the local, regional, national, EU and the international level. Due to the varying severity and nature of climate impacts between regions in Europe, most adaptation initiatives will be taken at the regional or local levels. The ability to cope and adapt differs across populations, economic sectors and regions within Europe. Adaptation is therefore crucial to deal with the current climate variability and unavoidable impacts of climate change. It will also help to take advantage of any opportunities that arise.

The European Climate Law writes into law the goal set out in the European Green Deal for Europe’s economy and society to become climate-neutral by 2050. The European Climate Law calls in the field of adaption for the following actions:

  • The relevant Union institutions and the Member States shall ensure continuous progress in enhancing adaptive capacity, strengthening resilience, and reducing vulnerability to climate change in accordance with Article 7 of the Paris Agreement.
  • The relevant Union institutions and the Member States shall also ensure that policies on adaptation in the Union and in Member States are coherent, mutually supportive, provide co-benefits for sectoral policies, and work towards better integration of adaptation to climate change in a consistent manner in all policy areas, including relevant socioeconomic and environmental policies and actions, where appropriate, as well as in the Union’s external action. They shall focus, in particular, on the most vulnerable and impacted populations and sectors, and identify shortcomings in this regard in consultation with civil society.
  • Member States shall adopt and implement national adaptation strategies and plans, taking into consideration the Union strategy on adaptation to climate change and based on robust climate change and vulnerability analyses, progress assessments and indicators, and guided by the best available and most recent scientific evidence. In their national adaptation strategies, Member States shall take into account the particular vulnerability of the relevant sectors, inter alia, agriculture, and of water and food systems, as well as food security, and promote nature-based solutions and ecosystem-based adaptation. Member States shall regularly update the strategies and include the related updated information in the reports to be submitted to the Commission.

Due to the varying severity and nature of climate impacts between regions in Europe, most adaptation initiatives will be taken at the regional or local levels. The ability to cope and adapt differs across populations, economic sectors, and regions within Europe. Adaptation is therefore crucial to deal with the current climate variability and unavoidable impacts of climate change as well as  with specific vulnerabilities in terms of age, health, place of residence, socio-economic status and other aspects. The concept of ‘leaving no one behind’ in climate change also called ‘justice in adaptation’ or ‘just resilience’, thus needs to be properly taken into account in implementing just, transformative and long-term climate adaptation policies and measures to avoid maladaptive practices, redistributing risk or reinforcing existing inequalities, and avoid creating “winners” and “losers”. It will also help to take advantage of any opportunities that .

The ETC/CCA Technical Paper 2/2021 'Just transition in the context of adaptation to climate change' provides an overview of knowledge and practice for just resilience in Europe as a scoping exercise based on a rapid review of various knowledge resources, such as scientific literature on social impacts of adaptation and resilience, information from Eionet contacts on climate change adaptation in EEA Member countries, input from the Expert Group on Just Resilience, established for this analysis, information from regulatory reports on national adaptation progress and a screening of the Climate-ADAPT database. It is organised along the steps of the AST.

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