Latest news and events on Climate-ADAPT

A policy brief and a study ‘Nordic Perspectives on Transboundary Climate Risk’ of the Nordic Council of Ministers show how floods and forest fires and other climate change impacts cascade over borders, resulting for example in higher prices or disturbances in supplies of food commodities. The report makes recommendations on how Nordics can better address those risks together.

The “10 New Insights in Climate Science 2022 Report” emphasizes and unpacks the complex interactions between climate change and other drivers of risk, such as conflicts, pandemics, food crises and underlying development challenges. This report responds to clear calls for policy guidance during this climate-critical decade. There is an urgent need for adaptive responses in order to avert and minimize further losses and damages.

The Climate-Health page of the Association of Schools for Public Health in the European Region (ASPHER) compiles activities and education resources on climate change and health for public health education.

The new EEA report ‘Climate change as a threat to health and well-being in Europe: focus on heat and infectious diseases’ providing evidence and outlooks on the health threats caused by heatwaves and climate-sensitive diseases is published.

In the context of rapidly ongoing crises, different in nature, duration and intensity, resilience and adaptation must be key drivers in recalibrating strategies to build future sustainable societies. A forum of debates on NATO, EU and UN perspectives on vulnerabilities and threats to communities in the Black Sea region, is organized by the Euro-Atlantic Resilience Centre of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Senate House of Romania. One specific forum 'Making cities resilient to climate change' addresses challenges and lessons learnt from European cities in relation to cities in Romania.

The European Environment Agency (EEA) briefing ‘Cooling buildings sustainably in Europe’ analyses how to best alleviate heat stress in buildings and its potential impacts on vulnerable groups, health and inequalities and at same time decrease the energy use. The frequent heatwaves and increasing vulnerability of the population will lead to a substantial increase in adverse health impacts in Europe unless adaptation measures are taken.

To facilitate the implementation of the European Union taxonomy, the German Environmental Agency has developed the recommendation "How to perform a robust climate risk and vulnerability assessment for EU Taxonomy reporting?". These recommendations describe how companies can practically proceed in order to meet the legal requirements to determine whether certain economic activities contribute significantly to European environmental goals, including climate protection and adaptation to climate change.

The European Parliament adopted a set of recommendations following a summer in 2022 of devastating droughts, forest fires and other extreme weather phenomena across Europe. Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) adopted a resolution on increasing the European Union’s (EU) efforts to address climate change mitigation and adaptation. MEPs want the Commission to propose a comprehensive, ambitious and legally binding European climate adaptation framework, with particular emphasis on the EU’s most vulnerable regions. The EU should also continue to play an active role in defining a global goal for adaptation and in ensuring the international community meets its goal for international climate finance.

The Ministry of Environment of Denmark and the Environmental Protection Agency, in collaboration with several other ministries, agencies and organisations have published a new case study on the Øresund bridge. The Øresundsbro Konsortiet is protecting the four-kilometre-long tunnel against storm surges. When the current projects have been completed in 2025, the tunnel part of the Øresund link will be able to withstand a 10,000-year storm surge, projected up to 2050. The current infrastructure projects involve building new dikes and a concrete wall for flood protection.

The Ministry of Environment of Denmark and the Environmental Protection Agency, in collaboration with several other ministries, agencies and organisations have published a new case study on urban climate adaptation in Copenhagen. Seven cast-iron manhole covers on the ground are the only sign of extensive and very complex flood protection for the Citadel in Østerbro, Copenhagen. The fortification is a listed ancient monument. In recent years, the Citadel has been exposed to several torrential flood events following cloudbursts. Following major underground work, the Danish Defence Estates and Infrastructure Organisation has now secured the Citadel against a 1,000-year rainfall event.

The joint transnational call for research and innovation projects under the framework of the European partnership Water4All on: “Management of water resources: resilience, adaptation and mitigation to hydroclimatic extreme events and management tools” is now open. The call supports projects aimed at delivering knowledge, models, approaches, tools and methodologies to better understand hydrological processes to respond more efficiently to emerging climate change related water issues.

On 9 November, EEA will launch its new report ‘Climate change as a threat to health and well-being in Europe: focus on heat and infectious diseases’. During the online launch event, EEA and the European Commission will discuss the report’s key findings, solutions to minimise the climate-related health threats, and insights into related EU policy responses. Participants can discuss actions to minimise health threats through more resilient health systems.

During the online launch event of EEA's new report ‘Climate change as a threat to health and well-being in Europe: focus on heat and infectious diseases’, EEA and the European Commission will discuss the report’s key findings, solutions to minimise the climate-related health threats, and insights into related EU policy responses. Participants can discuss actions to minimise health threats through more resilient health systems.

United Nations Environment Program’s Adaptation Gap Report 2022: 'Too Little, Too Slow – Climate adaptation failure puts world at risk' finds that the world must urgently increase efforts to adapt to these impacts of climate change. The report looks at global progress in planning, financing and implementing adaptation actions.

This seminar, in memory of Hans Rosling, world-renowned professor of global public health at Karolinska Institutet (KI), aims at continuing the work in Rosling's spirit for fact-based decisions, the belief that change is possible. This seminar informs about planetary health and safeguarding human health on a rapidly changing planet. It touches among others upon the impact of climate shocks on human nutrition and health, and on global nutritional impacts of rising concentrations of atmospheric CO2.

The 5th Planetary Health Annual Meeting aims to inform and learn about the complexities of planetary health science - including climate change, find community, seek solutions, and build skills for action and change. Planetary Health is a transdisciplinary and solutions-oriented frame for understanding and addressing the greatest challenges of our time: the transformation and degradation of Earth's biodiversity and natural systems, and its interconnected impacts on human health.

How will climate change impact family and community health? Is the health sector prepared for the challenges ahead? A global panel of experts will be discussing these challenges.

What does Climate-smart Healthcare look like in practice? That is the question this year’s European Healthcare Climate Summit aims to answer. The fourth edition will feature tangible and replicable case studies from across Europe inspiring other healthcare facilities. Alongside these examples, attendees will gain insight into the health impacts of climate change and the latest tools and resources available to support hospitals to deliver Climate-smart Healthcare.

The European Health Forum Gastein (EHFG) will celebrate its 25th anniversary in 2022 and take stock of the substantial accomplishments in public health over the last quarter century. EHFG will also look forward and discuss the challenges and policy options for action urgently needed across sectors, borders, and disciplines at this watershed moment for health, security, and solidarity. That creates a window of opportunity to co-create a true European Health Union. Session S4 on 'The health impacts of the climate crisis: New tools to support European action' (27 September) will discuss current needs and actions to estimate the scale and impact of the health risks resulting from the ongoing changes in environmental health determinants associated to climate change. How can current policy initiatives and research efforts at the European level provide the needed evidence, tools and frameworks to answer to the serious threat climate change poses to human health? You are invited to join this session to reflect and discuss existing approaches and future opportunities to address the climate crisis.

The Conference aims to present the opportunity to learn from the work of healthy cities across the European Region and beyond. The 2022 conference theme is: One Planet, One People, One Health. It will take forward the Commission’s recommendation to operationalize the One Health approach at the local level and to intensify the conversation about the interaction between human, animal and environmental health, including climate change.

The theme of the 15the EPHC Berlin 2022 is ‘Strengthening health systems: improving population health and being prepared for the unexpected’. The growing health inequalities around the globe require Europe to take on a more active role in global health. This includes taking a stand on expansive issues such as planetary health, climate change, environmental degradation, water and food security, and more. Conference track E specifically tackles issues related to environment, climate and health.

The MONTCLIMA project, sponsored by the European Regional Development Fund (Interreg SUDOE) is organizing a transnational seminar on Strategies for torrential floods management and prevention in mountain areas that will take place in Andorra la Vella, Andorra on 21 and 22 September 2022. This transnational seminar will focus on sharing knowledge and experiences concerning good practices on characterizing flood risk, associated vulnerabilities and expected socio-economic impacts, reducing the vulnerability of property and people and reducing the impact of the phenomenon.

World Health Organization (WHO) and Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) are jointly organising the webinar ”Protecting environments and health by building urban resilience”, on Tuesday, 4 October 2022, from 09:30 to 11:00 hrs (CEST). Urban and spatial planning needs to increasingly consider preparedness and resilience as a determinant of public health at the local level. Climate change, inadequate urbanization patterns and environmental degradation have left many cities vulnerable to disasters such as extreme weather events, chemical accidents, floods, earthquakes, power cuts, pandemics, or forest fires.

World Energy and Meteorology Council (WEMC) in collaboration with Inside Climate Service srl, the University of Padova and colleagues at the University of East Anglia are launching a new series of focused training for professionals to understand how climate services can be used for planning, decision making, communication, business development and defining strategies to build long-term resilience to climate change. This event will be held in Montegrotto Terme, Italy, on 24th – 25th October 2022.

In this dialogue, entitled: 'Just resilience: you show it... And then you know it', organized by Wageningen UR, the focus will be on importance of just resilience in the adaptation strategies on EU and local level, and how to measure just resilience.

The Climate landscapes online conference "The effect of landscape design on climate resilience and the meso-climate" will be held on 18 and 19 October, 2022. The conference aims to show science, practice, politics, media experts and companies the enormous potentials of ecosystem-oriented crop production and appropriately designed water management on the water balance of land, used for agriculture and forestry. At the same time, the associated positive effects with regard to biodiversity, healthy soils and improved climate adaptation are to be considered. Appropriate and feasible solutions that increase the resilience of agriculture, forestry and water management will be presented and discussed.

This year, Citepa (Technical Reference Center for Air Pollution and Climate Change) is organizing the conference on “Adaptation to climate change: Monitoring, reporting, evaluation” providing a scientific symposium, technical exchanges and political discussions. A half-day of presentations and exchanges with key players in the field of adaptation (national and international dimensions) is foreseen , with the aim to present the technical and financial issues and to highlight methodological approaches on monitoring, reporting and evaluation of adaptation, based on feedback and concrete cases. A presentation on the European Adaptation Knowledge platform, Climate-ADAPT, will demonstrate the content and functionalities of this platform for adaptation policy, planning, and practice.

The learning platform edX, Transformation through education, which is supported by various universities across the world including several European universities, offers an online course on “Ecosystem-based Adaptation: Working with nature to adapt to a changing climate”. It will equip learners with transferable and replicable skills in designing and implementing Ecosystem-based Adaptation (EbA) initiatives by offering targeted training on key principles, risk assessments, monitoring, and governance.

The European Commission organizes the second edition of the online conference Education for Climate Days for pupils, students teaching staff, NGOs and decision-makers in the EU, with panel discussions and country project-works about the state of the art in science and the European policies or community approaches on how to better address climate change challenges, especially by implementing green education solutions.

Join AIMES (Analysis, Integration, and Modeling of the Earth System), the Earth Commission, Future Earth, and the Safe Landing Climates Lighthouse Activity of the World Climate Research Program (WCRP) for a webinar on the health implications of climate tipping points, as part of a series that aims to advance the knowledge about tipping elements, irreversibility, and abrupt changes in the Earth system.