2009 - Foreign publications
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2009 - Foreign publications

River basin management in a changing climate - a Guidance document

On 30 November 2009, Water Directors of EU Member States issued a guidance document on adaptation to climate change in water management. The document is the first result of numerous actions included in the European Commission White Paper Adapting to climate change; Towards a European framework for action. The document includes guidance on how to take climate change into account in the implementation of the Water Framework Directive, the Floods Directive and the Strategy on Water Scarcity and Droughts.

Improving public health responses to extreme weather/heat-waves - EuroHeat
EuroHeat is a project coordinated by WHO/Europe to improve public health responses to weather extremes, in particular to heat waves.

Climate Change - Global Risks, Challenges & Decisions - Copenhagen 2009 - Synthesis Report
This synthesis report presents an up-to-date overview of research relevant to climate change - including fundamental climate  science, the impacts of a changing climate on society and the environment, and the many tools and approaches available to deal effectively with the challenge of climate change.

Convenient Solutions to an Inconvenient Truth: Ecosystem-based Approaches to Climate Change
The Environment Department of The World Bank has published the report "Convenient Solutions to an Inconvenient Truth: Ecosystem-based Approaches to Climate Change", which argues that national action plans should include an ecosystem-based approach to mitigating and adapting to climate change.

The Future of the Mediterranean - From Impacts of Climate Change to Adaptation Issues
IDDRI, the French institute for sustainable development and international relations, has published the report "The Future of the Mediterranean - From Impacts of Climate Change to Adaptation Issues", which provides an overview of climate change consequences for the Mediterranean over the coming century, as well as recommendations in relation to designing and implementing adaptation strategies.

Regional climate change and adaptation - The Alps facing the challenge of changing water resources
The European Environment Agency has published the report, "Regional climate change and adaptation - The Alps facing the challenge of changing water resources", which analyses the risks that climate change presents to the region's water supply and quality, identifying needs, constraints, opportunities, policy levers and options for adaptation.

Signs of Climate Change in Nordic Nature
The Nordic Council of Ministers has published the report "Signs of Climate Change in Nordic Nature", which presents 14 signs of climate change impacts on Nordic terrestrial, marine and freshwater ecosystems. Signs include: the pollen season begins earlier, the behavioural patterns of birds have changed, and polar bears are threatened by earlier ice-break-up.

An Analysis of Adaptation as a Response to Climate Change
The Copenhagen Consensus Center has launched a project involving 21 analysis papers addressing the following question: "If the global community wants to spend up to, say $250 billion per year over the next 10 years to diminish the adverse effects of climate changes, and to do most good for the world, which solutions would yield the greatest net benefits?" The main report, "An Analysis of Adaptation as a Response to Climate Change" emphasises the need for spontaneous (i.e. market-driven) adaptation, which must happen autonomously, without external influence.

Appraising the Socio-economic Impacts of Climate Change for Finland
Finnish Environment Institute 2007
FINADAPT Working Paper 12

The report discusses the economic evaluation of climate change impacts and adaptation. It presents a preliminary attempt at assessing the costs and benefits of climate change, using results from FINADAPT and from the published literature. It then discusses some of the priority issues for improving economic appraisal in the future.

Europe Adapts to Climate Change Comparing National Adaptation Strategies
The European network of research centres, Partnership for European Environmental Research (PEER), analyses climate change adaptation strategies in European countries. The National Environmental Research Institute, Aarhus, Denmark, has contributed to the report. The report analyses the status of national climate change adaptation strategies in EU countries and identifies a number of opportunities for strengthening the further process of implementing the strategies in the relevant countries.

Climate Policy Integration, Coherence and Governance
The European network of research centres, Partnership for European Environmental Research (PEER), analyses policy-making in the climate area in European countries. The National Environmental Research Institute, Aarhus, Denmark, has contributed to the report. The report "Climate Policy Integration, Coherence and Governance" addresses the integration of climate considerations in policy-making in six European countries, including Denmark.

Climate change projections
The British government has prepared new climate scenarios, showing the probability of climate changes, to help in planning efforts for British society. A regional climate model has been run eleven times to look forward in time and provide a basis to estimate the probability of exceeding certain limits for temperature, precipitation etc. in a given place. UK Climate projections (UKCIP) contain projections of the mean sea level based on the A1B scenario.

Local Government Climate Change Adaptation Toolkit 
 
The Australian government has prepared a toolkit for local governments, which they can utilise in climate change adaptation planning. The toolkit provides advice for authorities in their planning and decision-making for climate adaptation, using scientific data or projections and models for future climate change impacts.

Climate change impacts in Europe. Final report of the PESETA research project
EUR Number: 24093 EN
European Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC) 2009

Global warming could cost Europe up to €65 billion a year, the final report of the PESETA project says. If the climate expected in the 2080s occurred today, the EU would face yearly GDP losses between €20 and €65 billion, depending on the temperature increase in Europe (2.5°C to 5.4°C). This result takes into account four aspects that are highly sensitive to climate changes: agriculture, river flooding, coastal systems and tourism. The study also looked at different regional impacts of climate change across the EU. Damages would occur mainly in Southern and Central Europe, while Northern Europe would be the sole region with net economic benefits, mainly driven by the positive effects in agriculture.

Shaping Climate-resilient Development. A Framework for Decision-making
ECA Economics of Climate Adaptation 2009

A study by the Economics of Climate Adaptation Working Group, a partnership between the Global Environment Facility, McKinsey & Company, Swiss Re, the Rockefeller Foundation, ClimateWorks Foundation, the European Commission, and Standard Chartered Bank.

The report focuses on the economic aspects of adaptation, it outlines a fact-based risk management approach that decision-makers can use to understand the impact of climate on their economies - and identify actions to minimize that impact at the lowest cost to society.

Economics of Adaptation to Climate Change
World Bank 2009

The report estimates that it will cost the developing countries $75 - $100 billion each year to adapt to climate change from 2010 to 2050. This is under the assumption that the temperature will increase by 2°C by in 2050.

An Analysis of Adaptation as a Response to Climate Change
Copenhagen Consensus Center 2009

Adaptation responses are split into three different categories: reactive, proactive and investments in innovation. The size, timing, relative contribution to climate damage reduction, and the benefit-cost ratios of each of these strategies is assessed for the world as a whole, and for developed and developing countries. The study also takes into account the role of price signals and markets. The study concludes that adaptation is an effective means of reducing climate-related damages. The benefit-cost ratios of adaptation expenditure are larger than one in all scenarios, and for high and low climate damages and discount rates. Nonetheless, benefit-cost ratios are even larger when adaptation and mitigation are implemented jointly. Most adaptation expenditures need to be carried out in developing countries.

Strategies to Adapt to an Uncertain Climate Change
Global Environ. Change 2009
Hallegate S., 10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2008.12.003
The report costs money.

Future infrastructure should be made more robust to possible changes in climate conditions. This aim implies that users of climate information must change their decision-making frameworks, for instance by adapting the uncertainty-management methods they currently apply to exchange rates or R&D outcomes. Five methods are examined: (i) selecting "no-regret" strategies; (ii) favouring reversible and flexible options; (iii) buying "safety margins" in new investments; (iv) promoting soft adaptation strategies; and (v) reducing decision time horizons. Moreover, it is essential to consider both negative and positive side-effects and externalities of adaptation measures. Adaptation-mitigation interactions also call for integrated design and assessment of adaptation and mitigation policies, which are often developed by distinct communities.

Economic Aspect of Adaptation to Climate Change: Integrated Asessement Modelling of Adaptation Costs and Benefits
Kelly de Bruin, Rob Dellink og Shardul Agrawala
OECD Environment Working Papers No. 6, OECD 2009

Efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions need to move hand in hand with adaptation policies. The report seeks to inform critical questions with regard to policy mixes of investments in adaptation and mitigation, and how they might vary over time. Adaptation cost curves are estimated for the world, as well as for specific regions. The policy simulations show that the costs of inaction are high, and thus it is important to start acting on both mitigation and adaptation now.

The Blue Revolution: Adapting To Climate Change
Mitigation is about energy, adaptation is about water. This is the opening statement of a new essay on water and adaptation, written by two of the worlds leading profiles in the water sector, professor Torkil Jønch Clausen of DHI and Carsten Bjerg, CEO of Danish technology provider Grundfos.

The essay is about the global situation and highlights the urgent need for effective measures to protect the worlds most vulnerable communities from the effects of floods, extreme weather, drought and rising sea levels. The essay is published by Copenhagen Climate Council.