We urge the European Commission to develop a new EU climate adaptation strategy
Does Europe need a more ambitious EU Adaptation Strategy to tackle current and future challenges?
- Does Europe need a more ambitious EU Adaptation Strategy to tackle current and future challenges?
- Activities related to tackling climate adaptation and mitigation need to be integrated.
- Specifically on adaptation, we certainly welcome theblueprintfor a new EU strategy on adaptation to climate change.
- However, we now urge the European Commission to develop a more ambitious EU Adaptation Strategy in line with the principles of active subsidiarity and proportionality, recognising the crucial role that cities and regions play in climate adaptation and providing them with the tools necessary to develop territory-based solutions.
- We certainly need to act on specific key areas, starting with integrating climate adaptation as a crosscutting priority in territorial planning and management.
- Health in the EU member states has never been better than now, but climate change threatens the achievements of past decades.
- Local and regional governments are responsible for more than 70% of climate mitigation, and that percentage goes up to 90% when considering climate adaptation actions.
- It isestimatedthat around 40% of European cities with more than 150,000 inhabitants have already adopted climate adaptation plans.
- A good way to proceed, also in climate adaptation, would be to prepare Voluntary Local Review (VLR) reports on how cities and regions are implementing the SDGs.