Task Force for Climate Change Adaptation

In November 2011 the Danish government decided to relocate the Information Centre for Climate Change Adaptation from the Ministry of Climate and Energy to the Ministry of the Environment. In the Ministry of the Environment the information centre is now incorporated in a new The Task Force for Climate Change Adaptation.

The Minister of the Environment, Ida Auken, has announced that every municipality in Denmark should have an action plan for climate change adaptation ready before the end of 2013. A Climate Change Adaptation Squad was established in February 2012 in order to secure that every municipality has the necessary guidance to produce the action plan. The squad will visit municipalities on demand.

The Resilient House
A new tool, The Resilient House, has been launched at klimatilpasning.dk. The tool provides the user with an interactive experience of different risk and adaptation potential around a virtual house. The purpose of the tool is to provide house owners with information about what they can do to prevent flooding in and around their house to make them more aware of the potential climate change risks at home in short as well as long term.

Cases of climate change adaptation in Denmark
In the second largest city, Aarhus, a wetland is adapted into a new lake that collects excess rain water to prevent flooding. Furthermore the lake reduces nitrogen leaching from surrounding agricultural land.

The historic amusement park, Tivoli, in Copenhagen city centre, experienced great devastation from the extreme rainfall in July 2011. Thus an emergency response plan has been made along with essential readjustment in the park to decrease its vulnerability.

In the fairytale writer H.C. Andersen's hometown and the third largest city in Denmark, Odense, climate change adaptation will be taken into account while building the new Odense University Hospital. Measures will be taken to ensure that the hospital grounds are able to handle excessive rainfall without contributing to flooding elsewhere. 

CLIWAT
The CLIWAT (Climate Change and Ground Water) project was ended in March 2012 and the results of the project highlight climate change impacts on groundwater resources. The project involving 16 partners from Belgium, Holland, Germany and Denmark was funded by the EU development fund Interreg IVB and led to the publications of a new book entitled "Ground Water in a Future Climate" describing the project, that was published in December 2011.