Umweltbundesamt
Click to enlargeClimate-ADAPT, an online knowledge platform provided by the European Environment Agency (EEA) and the European Commission since 2012, has grown into the most important place for information when it comes to adaptation to climate change in Europe. A report of the EEA informs about the experiences and effectiveness of the platform and points to ways of further improving it.
The EU adaptation strategy supports the further development of Climate-ADAPT as one of its core elements since 2013. Climate-ADAPT aims to build the European knowledge base on adaptation to climate change in European countries, regions and policy sectors. The platform intends to support better-informed decision-making in adaptation policy, planning, and implementation of adaptation measures. Its core audience are decision makers from the local to the EU levels and organisations supporting them.
The EEA report „Sharing adaptation information across Europe“ shows that the platform reached its aims and was developed according to the needs of its stakeholders.
Relevant providers of information on adaptation to climate change in Europe share their knowledge through the platform, and there is potential to engage more providers in future. Providers benefit from the extended outreach and enhanced use of their information presented on Climate-ADAPT in the context of the European adaptation policy. An increase of the number of users by five times as well as the broad use of the knowledge across Europe indicate the growing appreciation of the platform by adaptation experts.
Seventeen examples of the platform use across all governance levels in Europe demonstrate that the knowledge presented on Climate-ADAPT supported mutual learning and was used in many decision-making processes across Europe. However, the user-friendliness of the platform could be further improved, for example, by additional services such as synthesis information.
The platform supports coordination across governance levels and among sectors, for example, by providing weblinks to important providers of adaptation information in Europe. The access to important knowledge sources through the platform, such as to Copernicus Climate Change Services, could be further enhanced.
The German Environment Agency (UBA) cooperates closely with Climate-ADAPT and presents own adaptation knowledge in a complementary way, such as information from the German Federal States.
The EEA report, complemented by a technical study with the evidence information, can be helpful for various users and informs the ongoing evaluation of the EU adaptation strategy which will be finished at the end of 2018.
The UBA’s motto, For our environment (“Für Mensch und Umwelt”), sums up our mission pretty well, we feel. In this video we give an insight into our work.
