News Archive
Commission funds 171 new LIFE projects in environment and climate across Europe with over €396 million
27 Nov 2023The European Commission approves 171 new projects under the LIFE Programme for environment and climate action. The sub-programme climate change mitigation and adaptation is enriched with 34 projects (worth €110 million) to boost the implementation of the European Climate Law and the EU Strategy on Adaptation to Climate Change, for which the EU provides around €65 million.
Scaling nature-based solutions for climate resilience and nature restoration
17 Nov 2023Nature-based solutions, such as restoring wetlands in flood-prone areas or green infrastructure to reduce heat island effects in cities, need to be scaled up to help Europe adapting to climate change. A European Environment Agency (EEA) briefing assesses the current state of such climate adaptation projects and how they can increase both societal resilience to climate change and nature restoration.
New information on the process and outcome of the European Climate Risk Assessment
10 Nov 2023The European Climate Risk Assessment (EUCRA) will support the identification of adaptation related policy priorities and related investments in EU policy development in climate sensitive sectors. An update of the Climate-ADAPT EUCRA page shows the latest developments towards the publication of this key product of the EU Adaptation Strategy.
UNEP Adaptation Gap Report 2023
06 Nov 2023The Adaptation Gap Report of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) looks at progress in planning, financing and implementing adaptation actions. The main finding for 2023 is that progress on climate adaptation is slowing when it should be accelerating to catch up with rising climate change impacts.
ASPECT survey to improve the usability of climate information for European organisations
30 Oct 2023The EU funded Horizon Europe ASPECT project aims to improve the provision of climate information for risk management and climate change adaptation. Professionals from all sectors and organisations of any size that are sensitive to climate or weather and who have either used or could potentially use weather/climate information are asked to fill in a 15 minute survey. The feedback will guide important advancements in European climate prediction research and services, enhancing the region's resilience to climate change.
Germany steps up its effort in adapting to climate risks and impacts
30 Oct 2023The OECD released in May 2023 the 4th Environmental Performance Review of Germany. It assesses the country's Adaptation Policy Framework; efforts to implement Nature-based Solutions, and provides also recommendations to further strengthen resilience to climate change. The report shows that, in the past two decades, Germany experienced a considerable number of extreme weather events, including floods, storms, droughts and heatwaves, which all had significant impacts on livelihoods, the environment and the economy. Germany has therefore scaled up its engagement on climate change adaptation across all government levels and initiated an ambitious programme to foster investments in nature-based solutions.
Innovative storylines approach to cross-border climate change affecting Europe
30 Oct 2023The EU funded Horizon 2020 project RECEIPT studied the cascading impacts of climate change outside Europe on key socio-economic sectors of the European Union. The project has developed storylines unveiling cause-and-effect relationships over time and summarised actionable recommendations for decision-makers in 5 policy briefs on how the European Union can protect itself from remote climate change impacts.
Climate Risk Sourcebook published
30 Oct 2023Funded by Germany's Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection (BMUV) and Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), a new version of the Climate Risk Sourcebook (CR-SB), developed by Eurac’s Research Center for Climate Change and Transformation together with GIZ, UNU-EHS, GeoSphere Austria and IIASA, was launched during the Adaptation Futures 2023 Conference. The book delivers a conceptual framework for a comprehensive Climate Risk Assessment (CRA) together with modular instructions, divided in eight modules, on how it can be conducted. The guidelines were updated to be consistent with the most recent IPCC report (AR6), introducing external risk drivers, impact/risk cascades and systemic risks, and a new chapter on how CRAs inform Climate Risk Management (CRM).
Climate Risk Planning & Managing Tool for development programmes in agri-food systems launched
30 Oct 2023The Climate Risk Planning & Managing Tool (CRISP) was launched during the Adaptation Futures Conference 2023. Eurac’s Research Center for Climate Change and Transformation, together with the Alliance for Biodiversity and CIAT, the Free University of Bolzano/Bozen and GIZ (German Development Cooperation), developed this interactive web-based tool to support and build capacities of agri-food development programs to integrate climate risks into their project design and implementation. The project was funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).
Heatwaves, droughts, other extreme weather events increasingly influencing adaptation policies in Europe
26 Oct 2023Climate risk assessments that take account of threats like heatwaves, droughts, floods and wildfires are increasingly being used to inform and improve national adaptation policies, according to the second European Environment Agency (EEA) assessment of EU member states' national adaptation actions published recently. The EEA briefing ‘Is Europe on track towards climate resilience? Status of reported national adaptation actions in 2023,’ presents the current state of play of national adaptation policies. It is underpinned by the findings of a technical paper, developed by the European Topic Centre on Climate Change Adaptation (ETC), and the information reported under the EU Governance Regulation (Article 17 and Article 19).