The European Commission Releases New Strategy on Adaptation to Climate Change
On 24th February, the Directorate-General for Climate Action (DG CLIMA), led by Executive Vice President Frans Timmermans, released the new EU Strategy on Adaptation to Climate Change.
In the EU, climate-related losses now average over €12 billion per year. Conservative estimates show that exposing today's EU economy to global warming of 3°C above pre-industrial levels would result in an annual loss of at least €170 billion.
The Strategy aims at building a climate-resilient society by:
improving knowledge of climate impacts and adaptation solutions
stepping up adaptation planning and climate risk assessments
accelerating adaptation action
The strategy’s objectives are underpinned by 14 actions and the steps to be taken to deliver them, including:
An enhanced and expanded Climate-ADAPT - the European platform for adaptation knowledge – which will include a dedicated health observatory will be added to better track, analyse, and prevent health impacts of climate change.
The use of the Commission’s Risk Data Hub to harmonise the recording and collection of comprehensive and granular climate-related risk and losses data and promote national-level public-private partnerships to collect and share such data.
The update of the Better Regulation guidelines and toolbox to better reflect the principles of climate-risk management policy coherence.
The launch of an adaptation support facility under the EU Covenant of Mayors.
Reskilling and requalification of workers for a just and fair resilience with education and training through ESF+, Erasmus+ and European Solidarity Corps.
The EU will also work at three different levels - sub-national, national, and regional - with a specific focus on climate adaptation in Africa, Small Island Developing States (SIDS), and Least Developed Countries (LDC).
Next Steps
The Commission will discuss the strategy with the Member States in the Environmental Council, which is expected to agree to conclusions when it meets in June 2021.
For more information:
Visit the Climate Adaptation website of the European Commission.