Adaptation to climate change: white paper published

The European Commission published a White Paper on Adaptation to Climate Change on 1 April. This paper outlines actions needed to strengthen the EU’s resilience in coping with a changing climate, and gives the EU’s position on climate change ahead of the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen. Water management is considered as one of the priority areas. Protecting existing and future infrastructure from the impact of Climate Change will be predominantly a Member State responsibility. The EU will, nevertheless, play an important role in promoting best practice, via support for infrastructure development and also in developing standards for construction such as Eurocodes. Action will be taken to develop methodologies for climate-proofing infrastructure projects and consider how these could be integrated into the TEN- T (Trans-European Transport Network) guidelines on investment under the Cohesion policy; explore the possibility of making climate impact assessment a condition for public and private investment and assess the possibility of incorporating climate impacts into construction standards, such as the Eurocodes. The Commission also wants to develop vulnerability indicators for a number of economic sectors by 2011 and also wants to establish by then an EU-wide information exchange platform to help stakeholders adapt successfully to climate change.

A first phase of the strategy will run until 2012 and will lay the groundwork for preparing a comprehensive EU adaptation strategy from 2013 and beyond. It will focus on increasing understanding of climate change and possible adaptation measures and how adaptation can be embedded in key EU policies. The Commission also plans to set up an Impact and Adaptation Steering Group (IASG), which will be composed of representatives from EU Member States involved in the drawing up of national and regional adaptation programmes. This will be supported by technical working groups, which will be involved in the development of further Eurocodes.

The White Paper can be found here:

http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=COM:2009:0039:FIN:EN:PDF