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Global Forum of the OECD/IEA Climate Change Expert Group (CCXG) – 17/18 March 2015, Paris

National adaptation policy processes in European countries - 2014

Stéphane Isoard

Adaptation and economics (Stephane.Isoard@eea.europa.eu)

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EEA member and cooperating countries

The EEA is a specialised

agency of the European Union

The EEA aims to support

sustainable development and to

help achieve significant and

measurable improvement in

Europe’s environment through

the provision of timely,

targeted, relevant and reliable

information to policy makers

and the public.

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How are the results organised?

30 European member countries returned their self-assessment

Key findings clustered around 8 Key Topics :

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Overview of national and sectoral adaptation strategies and plans in Europe

• 21 countries have a national adaptation strategy and 12 a national action plan

• 13 countries report

they are in the implementation or monitoring and evaluation stages

• Providing information and mainstreaming in sectors are the most reported instruments

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Why do countries develop adaptation policies?

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What are the main barriers to adaptation?

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Which sectors have priority for implementation?

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Sectoral progress at national level

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Designing adaptation options

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Which methods are used for designing adaptation options?

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Which policy instruments are used for implemention?

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Which financing mechanisms are used for implemention?

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Future directions for national adpatation in Europe

Agenda-setting issues:

From a broad perspective, countries have taken similar pathways in addressing climate change adaptation.

Nevertheless, it is essential to further improve our understanding of governance approaches and of implementation processes at national, regional and local levels.

A more standardised basis for monitoring, reporting and evaluation schemes and for appraisal methods would facilitate learning across countries, sectors and public and private actors.

Capacity building and advanced communication methods are key elements to foster adaptation policy at all levels.

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Thank you for your attention

Please do not hesitate to ask the European Environment Agency for information http://www.eea.europa.eu http://www.eea.europa.eu/themes/climate http://climate-adapt.eea.europa.eu

Explore SOER 2015 online – http://eea.europa.eu/soer

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Adaptation at the EEA 2009-2014

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Why this report?

Country information

o Lack of European-wide overview of adaptation activities at national levels

o On Climate-ADAPT the country pages are the most visited, demonstrating the demand from EEA member countries for information at national and sub-national levels. Despite providing a useful overview, they give a static view and allow mainly descriptive work.

Good practices and examples from countries have the potential to illustrate adaptation and inspire - ‘Naming and honouring’ approach

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How was the report developed?

Self-assessment (online) of 44 questions: o General statements on adaptation

o The adaptation policy process:

- Prepare the ground for adaptation

- Identify risks and explore options

- Implementation, monitoring and evaluation

o Level of adaptation and policy instruments in sectors

o Involvement of stakeholders

o Open questions on next steps

Sent to bodies responsible for coordinating adaptation at national level

One coordinated answer per country requested

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What is the added value of this report?

Unique collection of information (30 countries returned their self-assessment), unprecedented, largest and most comprehensive overview of national (and sub-national) adaptation activities, to date – Breakthrough report

Summarised in a series of policy-relevant, concise and easy-to-read 8 Key Topics

‘Naming and honouring’ approach - Different objectives than DG CLIMA scoreboard (no ranking)

Informative to our stakeholders, complements Climate-ADAPT, provide up-to-date and European-wide information and enhance exchange of information between countries (good practices)

Support countries, both in connection with their own activities and having an European wide perspective/overview

Supports the Commission and the Adaptation Strategy implementation

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What are the lessons learned and success factors for this report?

Scoping of the project and consultation of countries – Upstream activities to prepare the ground, explain purpose, scope, objectives (e.g. EIONET workshops, Helsinki and London EPA meetings)

Self-assessment

Very high response rate demonstrates the motivation and high demand from countries for (even more) information at national level and overview of progress in implementing adaptation

ETC/CCA team key to the process and links to countries, content development and writing (EAA (Austria), Syke (Finland), UKCIP (UK), CMCC (Italy), Alterra (NL), WUR (NL))

Limitations: time schedule; responding authorities; terminology; mostly closed questions; rapid developments

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Review of key findings

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Sectors covered in assessments of risks and vulnerability

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Information and knowledge gaps for risk and vulnerability assessments

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Effectiveness of horizontal coordination mechanisms

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How are stakeholders involved in the development of policies?

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What is the status of monitoring, reporting and evaluation?