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Fisheries Policy. The EC is also seeking to enhance
the resilience of infrastructure to climate change in
Europe through a review of the existing standards
in the fields of energy, transport and construction.
Finally, the EC is promoting the use of insurance
to protect against disasters, and other financial
products for risk management and reduction in the
European market.
The “Climate Change Committee” representing
EU Member States coordinates the adaptation
actions based on the Strategy. In addition, each
country has appointed a national contact point to
coordinate communication between the state and the
Commission. The Commission envisages maintaining
an open dialogue with stakeholders to ensure proper
and timely implementation of the Strategy over time.
The European Environment Agency (EEA)
assists European countries and EU institutions in
deepening their understanding on ways to meet
adaptation needs arising within regions, sectors or
communities by regularly publishing updated reports
on adaptation with a pan-European scope (see for
instance EEA, 2012; 2013; 2014a; 2014b; 2015).
According to the EEA, there is an appetite for further
research that would support a sound and coherent
political response on adaptation to climate change
in Europe (EEA, 2013). Although the transferability
of adaptation knowledge across European and
neighbouring countries is considered key to
facilitating countries at early stages of adaptation
planning to swiftly and efficiently develop and
finalize the policy process and implement concrete
measures, the context-dependency of adaptation
may affect the actual transferability. Therefore,
special consideration should be given to subregional
and local vulnerability, as well as to exposure and
adaptive capacity factors, when drafting policies and
plans for adaptation within a larger Europe.
Several cooperation initiatives are increasingly being
undertaken on adaptation to climate change in the
Western Balkan countries as a subregion. The EU has
financed cooperation programmes and projects for
the broader South-East Europe transnational region
and other initiatives as part of the EU accession
process to support candidate countries to transpose
and implement a new set of climate change legislation.
The EU Forest Strategy was adopted by the
Commission in 2013 (EC, 2013e). In the context
of the new challenges facing forests and the forest
sector from a changing climate, the Strategy
mentions the importance of adaptation actions to
be undertaken in synergy with actions to mitigate
climate change.
The 2013 EU Forest Strategy
In particular, it calls onMember States to demonstrate
“how they enhance their forests’ adaptive capacities
and resilience, building on the actions proposed in
the EU Strategy on Adaptation to Climate Change
and the Green Paper on Forest Protection and
information, such as bridging knowledge gaps and
mainstreaming adaptation action in forest policies.”
Shepherd huts in the mountains, Bosnia and Herzegovina