Green paper on adapting to climate change in Europe

EuroAlert: Climate change is one of the greatest challenges facing the world in the 21st century. Action to limit these changes by limiting emissions of greenhouse gases is the top priority. But it is also important to plan in good time for adapting to such changes as have now become unavoidable. The Green Paper is a welcome first step for Europe in facing up to this. In the EESC's view the following key points should be covered in the development of the European and national adaptation strategies:

• Strategies should deal with planning for all the topics identified in the Green Paper including coast protection, floods and droughts etc.
• The need for adaptation should take a much larger share of European budgets in future programmes.
• Substantial new and additional resources should be committed by Europe.
• Mitigation and adaptation strategies must match up and complement one another.
• European research into adaptation climate change impacts.
• European civil society, including consumers and the general public, should be more extensively engaged in order to
• spread wider public understanding.
• An independent body should be established to monitor progress on adaptation to climate change.

High water in Koblenz, Germany, 1993, shot by Holger Weinandt, Wikimedia Commons, under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation license, Version 1.2