Evaluation of the EU's Strategy on Adaptation to Climate Change

Evaluation of the EU's Strategy on Adaptation to Climate Change

• Climate action
• Agriculture and rural development
• Banking and financial services
• Borders and security
• Business and industry
• Employment and social affairs
• Energy
• Environment
• European neighbourhood policy
• Foreign affairs and security policy
• Humanitarian aid and civil protection
• International cooperation and development
• Maritime affairs and fisheries
• Migration and asylum
• Regional policy
• Research and innovation
• Trade
• Transport

All citizens and organisations are welcome to contribute to this consultation. Contributions are particularly sought from professionals dealing with adaptation to climate change in all types of organisations in the EU.

7/12/2017 – 1/3/2018

Introduction

The EU Strategy on Adaptation to Climate Change (from now on: the Strategy) adopted in April 2013 aims to increase the resilience of the EU territory by enhancing the preparedness and capacity of all government levels to respond to the impacts of climate change. The Strategy commits to delivering three objectives - promoting action by Member States; ‘climate-proofing’ action at EU level; and better-informed decision-making - through the implementation of eight Actions:

• Action 1: Encourage all Member States to adopt comprehensive adaptation strategies: This action involves the provision of guidelines by the European Commission to help Member States to develop, implement and review their adaptation policies, as well as the development of an adaptation preparedness scoreboard, identifying key indicators for measuring Member States’ climate readiness.
• Action 2: Provide LIFE funding to support capacity building and step up adaptation action in Europe (2014-2020): The Commission will promote adaptation in vulnerable areas (cross-border management of floods; trans-boundary coastal management; mainstreaming adaptation in urban land use planning, building layouts and natural resources management; mountain and island areas; sustainable management of water; combating desertification and forest fires in drought prone areas). The Commission will also support the establishment of vulnerability assessments and adaptation strategies, including those with a cross-border nature, and promote awareness-raising on adaptation.
• Action 3: Introduce adaptation in the Covenant of Mayors framework (2013/2014): The Commission will support adaptation in cities, in particular by launching an initiative, based on the model of the Covenant of Mayors, through which local authorities can make a voluntary commitment to adopt local adaptation strategies and awareness-raising activities.
• Action 4: Bridge the knowledge gap: The Commission will work with Member States and stakeholders to identify adaptation knowledge gaps and the relevant tools and methodologies to address them, and feed the findings into the programming of Horizon 2020, the EU’s 2014-2020 framework programme for research and innovation. It will also address the need for better interfaces between science, policy making and business. The Commission will also promote EU-wide vulnerability assessments, support the Joint Research Centre in its work on estimating the implications of climate change, and undertake a comprehensive review of what global climate change will mean for the EU.
• Action 5: Further develop Climate-ADAPT as the ‘one-stop shop’ for adaptation information in Europe: The Commission and the EEA will improve access to information and develop interaction between Climate-ADAPT and other relevant knowledge platforms, including national and local portals. Special attention will be given to cost-benefit assessments of policy and to innovative funding.
• Action 6: Facilitate the climate-proofing of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), the Cohesion Policy and the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP): The Commission provided guidance on how to further integrate adaptation under the CAP, Cohesion Policy and CFP. Member States and regions can also use funding under the 2014-2020 Cohesion Policy and CAP to address knowledge gaps, to invest in the necessary analyses, risk assessments and tools, and to build up capacities for adaptation.
• Action 7: Ensuring more resilient infrastructure: This action includes launching a mandate for EU standardisation organisations to identify and revise industry-relevant standards in the area of energy, transport and buildings, to ensure better inclusion of adaptation considerations. Guidelines for project developers on climate-proofing vulnerable investments were provided with the Strategy. The Commission will also explore the need for additional guidance on mobilising ecosystem-based approaches to adaptation.
• Action 8: Promote insurance and other financial products for resilient investment and business decisions: The Commission adopted together with the Strategy a Green Paper on the insurance of natural and man-made disasters. The Commission seeks to improve market penetration of natural disaster insurance and to unleash the full potential of insurance pricing and other financial products for risk-awareness prevention and mitigation and for long-term resilience in investment and business decisions.

Consultation objectives

In 2016, the Commission launched an evaluation of the Strategy. The evaluation examines the implementation and achievements of the Strategy compared to what was expected at the time the Strategy was adopted in 2013. It also looks at the evolution of the needs to which the Strategy responds, for example in light of the 2015 Paris Agreement, which treats adaptation to climate change on equal footing with greenhouse gas emission reduction. The evaluation follows the standard framework for evaluation of EU policies and examines the relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, coherence and EU added value. More details on the evaluation and the specific evaluation questions can be found in the evaluation roadmap.

This open public consultation is one of the stakeholder consultation activities undertaken to gather evidence to support the Strategy’s evaluation.

In the interests of transparency, the Commission asks organisations who wish to submit comments in the context of public consultations to provide the Commission and the public at large with information about whom and what they represent by registering in the Transparency Register and subscribing to its Code of Conduct. If an organisation decides not to provide this information, it is the Commission's stated policy to list the contribution as part of the individual contributions. (Consultation Standards, see COM (2002) 704, and Communication on ETI Follow-up, see COM (2007) 127 of 21/03/2007). If your organisation is not registered, you have the opportunity to Register now.

Received contributions will be published on the Internet. It is important to read the specific privacy statement attached to this consultation for information on how your personal data and contribution will be dealt with.

Only responses received through the online questionnaire will be taken into account and included in the summary report. The online questionnaire will allow respondents to upload a document, such as a position paper. This document will be published together with the response.

The questionnaire.

Public consultation meeting on the evaluation of the EU's Strategy on Adaptation to Climate Change, 23 January 2018, Centre de Conférences Albert Borschette, Rue Froissart 36, 1040 Etterbeek, Brussels, Belgium.

• Summary of the interim findings of the study supporting the evaluation, based on a literature review, a targeted stakeholder survey and interviews
• Draft versions of the country fiches which outline the climate change adaptation preparedness of each EU Member State (the fiches will be finalised in the second half of 2018)
  • Austria
  • Belgium
  • Bulgaria
  • Croatia
  • Cyprus
  • Czech Republic
  • Denmark
  • Estonia
  • Finland
  • France
  • Germany
  • Greece
  • Hungary
  • Ireland
  • Italy
  • Latvia
  • Lithuania
  • Luxembourg
  • Malta
  • Netherlands
  • Poland
  • Portugal
  • Romania
  • Slovakia
  • Slovenia
  • Spain
  • Sweden
  • United Kingdom
• Adaptation preparedness scoreboard description
• EU Adaptation Strategy

Disclaimer

It should be noted that the background documents are part of the on-going consultation process of an evaluation carried out by external consultants and does not represent the views of the Commission. This consultation is taking place at a time when the consulting team has completed its desk review as well as the targeted surveys and interviews. The findings presented in the background documents and in the questionnaire are thus preliminary and do not represent the full assessment, as findings and conclusions may change as the work advances.

Email: CLIMA-CLIMATE-CHANGE-ADAPTATION@ec.europa.eu

Directorate-General for Climate Action
Directorate A (International & Mainstreaming)
Unit A3: Adaptation
European Commission
B-1049 Brussels
Belgium

• Submissions (excel)
• Other submissions

• Summary report