Climate Adaptation

Context of the action

The European Commission adopted the new EU strategy on adaptation to climate change in February 2021. The strategy has four principal objectives: to make adaptation smarter, swifter and more systemic, and to step up international action on adaptation to climate change.

It is the fourth objective that SPIPA has been supporting by setting up various opportunities for mutual learning between SPIPA partner countries and EU stakeholders.

SPIPA’s exchange-related activities were, in many instances, based on the advanced state of adaptation planning in the EU and among its member states, but the EU benefited from these dialogues as well: many international partners, such as Canada and Japan, have long been on the frontlines of climate change and have valuable experience that can help Europe become more climate resilient.

SPIPA action

The flagship SPIPA adaptation activity was establishing the Stepping up Knowledge Exchange for Climate Adaptation Platforms (KE4CAP) project. KE4CAP has stimulated exchanges that have advanced cooperation and learning among practitioners in the field of adaptation planning and policy-making by the use of online and discussion platforms as knowledge hubs, with the Climate-ADAPT platform being the key reference on EU-side.

The activities were implemented mostly through global virtual knowledge exchanges (VKEs), which examined a series of topics of operational and strategic importance on such platforms and were open to established, newly formed or planned platforms. These VKEs allowed platform developers and operators to share their experiences, consider good practices, and identify and address common and emerging challenges.

Starting in 2020, bilateral exchanges were realised with practitioners from Australia, Canada, Japan and Mexico as ongoing support towards the development of a national adaptation platform in these countries. In addition, SPIPA supported sessions about adaptation platforms at global events, including at the Adaptation Futures Conference in October 2021, the EU Climate Change Adaptation Conference as well as the final KE4CAP workshop in September 2021, hosted by the European Environment Agency.

KE4CAP activities were complemented by bilateral exchanges with partner country stakeholders on a range of adaptation-related topics. Highlights comprise activities with China on scenario modelling, with India on adaptation challenges for tropical cities and adaptation planning based on EU experiences, with Mexico on coastal vulnerability, and with Saudi Arabia on adaptation aspects in the European Green Deal.

Additionally,exchanges between the EU and the United States on resilience focused on finance for climate adaptation from public and private sources.

The workstream on financing for adaptation was implemented mainly via the EU-US Climate Alliance’s Climate Risk and Resilience Cooperation, which supports technical collaboration on the topic among experts and policymakers from US states, the US Climate Alliance (USCA), the European Commission, EU member states, and European and American institutions. Throughout 2020 and 2021, several virtual exchanges took place with US and EU experts on investments in marginalised communities, managing climate risk at state level, transportation and funding.

Capacity building was the focus of SPIPA adaptation activities in India and South Africa. In India, SPIPA supported the development of an investment proposal for improving the resilience of tea-farming communities. In South Africa, SPIPA partnered with the Presidential Climate Commission (PCC) in relation to the adaptation and climate resilience aspects of navigating a Just Transition to a low-carbon economy. Here, SPIPA’s support focused on the identification of climate-resilient development pathways and developing capacity-strengthening priorities related to climate adaptation planning at regional, national and local levels.