Baltic and European news
EU unveils climate adaptation strategy
Wednesday 1 April 2009The European commission published a long-awaited white paper on adapting to climate change on Wednesday. Closely resembling an earlier draft (EE 16/03/09 http://www.endseurope.com/20915), the paper sets out the likely impacts of climate change on Europe and proposes actions to reduce the region's vulnerability.
Over the next 50 years climate change is likely to have profound effects on economic sectors such as agriculture, energy, transport, tourism and health, the commission says. Most actions to deal with this will have to be taken nationally and locally, but the EU must provide an overall coordinating strategy, it believes.
The commission proposes a two-phase approach: more research and analysis of potential adaptation actions from 2009-12 followed by the implementation of a comprehensive EU adaptation strategy from 2013.
In the short-term, better information on the costs and benefits of adapting to climate change is vital, the commission says. It proposes an EU-wide information exchange platform to help plug the knowledge gaps. A first estimate of the cost of adapting to climate change in Europe is expected from the EU research project ADAM later this year.
Knowing how much money is needed is important because the Stern review identified financial constraints as one of the main barriers to adaptation.
As an example of the potential scale of costs involved, EU environment commissioner Stavros Dimas on Wednesday told journalists the Netherlands had calculated it would need to spend E1.2bn-E1.6bn per year up to 2050 on sea defences for its low-lying areas.
The commission foresees money from the EU budget, auctioning revenues from the EU emission trading scheme (ETS) and funds from insurance and other financial services products helping pay for adaptation in Europe. Financing cannot be left to individuals or businesses, it says.
Compared to an earlier draft, Wednesday's white paper devotes more attention to water and is less demanding of agriculture. It no longer says the Common Agricultural Policy should "actively discourage unsustainable practices" and urges rural development programmes to embed adaptation measures rather than encourage additional funding for adaptation.
An Impact and Adaptation Steering Group (IASG) composed of member state representatives will be create to discuss how to implement the commission's proposals.
Follow-up: European commission http://ec.europa.eu/index_en.htm plus white paper on adaptation
http://ec.europa.eu/environment/climat/adaptation/pdf/com_2009_147_en.pdf,
summary of impact assessment http://ec.europa.eu/environment/climat/adaptation/pdf/sec_2009_388.pdf,
press release
background memo
and webpages on adaptation http://ec.europa.eu/environment/climat/adaptation/index_en.htm (with
links to full impact assessment and accompanying policy papers on agriculture, health, and water, coasts and marine issues)
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