EEA Report “Urban adaptation in Europe: what works? Implementing climate action in European cities”
The Report highlights how urgent it is to implement adaptation actions in cities to make them more resilient to climate dangers such as heat waves, intense rainfall, drought and provides useful indications to administrations committed to combating the impacts of climate change at urban level.
European cities are adapting to climate change through a wide range of effective actions, including urban planning and building regulations, economic incentives, early warning systems and information campaigns. Emerging areas of adaptation include promoting urban agriculture, creating more livable public spaces and protecting cultural heritage.
The EEA report also highlights that, if actions are to be adequately scaled up at local level, much more concrete targets are needed to measure progress. Currently, only 2% of indicators used for monitoring in local adaptation plans are linked to a specific adaptation objective.
In March, the EEA published the first European climate risk assessment, demonstrating that Europe's current adaptation policies and actions are not in line with rapidly growing climate risks. According to the report, densely populated urban areas are particularly at risk due to heat waves and extreme rainfall.
ISPRA contributed to the complete revision of the Report, providing some comments and suggestions for integrating the contents.