Commission staff working document
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- Actions 1. Low-emission development
- 2. Climate change adaptation
- Targets and indicators
- Target/ deadline
HA ClimateCoordinated by: Council of the Baltic Sea States Secretariat Human influence on the climate system is clear and recent climate changes have had widespread impacts on human and natural systems on all continents and across the oceans. Future climate scenarios show increasing annual and seasonal temperatures of about 3-4 degrees by the end of this century for the Baltic Sea region (BSR), a projected warming that is higher than the global mean. The Baltic Sea region is highly industrialized and populated – around 85 million people live in the Baltic Sea catchment area. That makes the BSR highly vulnerable to the climate change, e.g. sea level rise would affect at least 16 million people that live on the coast.72 Furthermore socio economic impacts are foreseen to be considerable with various degrees of resilience among regions and sectors. All BSR countries are therefore concerned by vulnerability to a changing climate. However, awareness and preparedness to climate change differ across the Baltic Sea region.73 The EU has supported the overall objective for reducing global greenhouse gas emissions by 50% up to 2050 in order to meet 2C target.74 Agreement on cutting the EU greenhouse gas emissions to 20% below 1990 levels by 2020 is one of the targets of the Europe 2020 Strategy, which is about delivering smart, sustainable and inclusive growth, implemented through the EU climate and energy package. Following the EC proposal on the EU Climate and Energy Policy framework till 2030, at the European Summit in October 2014, European leaders agreed that the EU should step up its efforts and domestically reduce its emissions by at least 40% compared to 1990 by 2030. The fight against climate change has increasingly been reflected also in other EU policy areas, such as energy, agriculture or transport; it has been agreed that at least 20% of the EU budget for 2014-2020, as much as €180 billion, will be spent for climate-related actions.75 In order to achieve these ambitious EU goals, to advance the mainstreaming process in the region and to make the BSR more resilient, macro-regional approaches to a low- emission development are needed. Many BSR countries, municipalities and cities in this region have made cutting green-house gas emissions their main environmental priority. We need to intensify and integrate these efforts to develop joint cost-efficient and innovative solutions to transform the BSR economy to be more resource efficient and resilient. While effective mitigation action is crucial, adaptation has to be the other aspect of comprehensive climate work, on all levels of governance. Both the EU Strategy on Adaptation to Climate Change and the Council’s conclusions on this subject76 emphasize the importance and value added of knowledge and good practice exchange between member states, regions, cities and other stakeholders. However, adaptation and mitigation are complementary strategies for reducing and managing the risks of climate change. Effective adaptation and mitigation responses will depend on policies and measures across multiple scales, supporting technology development, diffusion and transfer, as well as finance for responses to climate change. The horizontal action aims to: facilitating integrative cross-sectorial policy discussions and alignment of policies in the Baltic Sea region countries, including mainstreaming of climate change mitigation and adaptation into relevant sectoral policies; promoting low emission and climate resilient development through targeted strategic investments and integrated planning; promoting regional cooperation in creating and empowering the EU climate and energy policy development and implementation by ensuring secure energy supply and efficiently using potential of renewable energy sources and promoting energy efficiency; promoting sustainable production and consumption-oriented measures and economy measures such as resource efficiency and sustainable lifestyles in order to lower the region’s carbon footprint; increasing coordination and synergy among initiatives and projects dealing with climate adaptation and mitigation in the Baltic Sea region by consolidating findings and disseminating good examples, methods and experiences in the field as well as clustering already existing activities and projects and promoting science-policy-business dialogues. Actions 1. Low-emission development Human activity contributes to climate change, and the consequences are serious. Curbing global warming requires a drastic reduction in emissions. The next few years will be critical for enacting international climate mitigation agreements as well as regional and national strategies. Many BSR countries have made cutting greenhouse gas emissions their main environmental priority. However, further actions on emission reduction need to be taken not only to address climate change but also to facilitate low-emission development, social security and environmental sustainability. Therefore it is necessary that BSR countries establish the enabling conditions under which individuals, businesses and organizations can benefit from the opportunities offered by new low-emission markets, technologies, products and services. A mix of policies will be required to achieve this.77 During the last decade, many Baltic Sea region countries acquired considerable experience in the development of sustainable energy solutions and environmentally friendly technologies in various fields. However, great disparities remain with respect to both socio-economic developments and the implementation of sustainable practices. Some national/ local plans are more focused on short term sets of solutions (2020/30), others focus on the long term (2030/50) resulting in different approaches and instruments. Therefore, enhanced coordination by national and local governments and by different stakeholders as well as sharing of expertise and best practice between national, regional and international stakeholders is needed. In order to support the BSR transformation into a low carbon economy, the Action is focusing on the following activities and initiatives:78 establishing a strategic dialogue between governments for supporting the development and implementation of national low carbon development policies in order to: support harmonization of rules and plans between BSR planning authorities to ensure progress of the BSR towards long-term (2050) low carbon development (LCD); promote climate-resilient and resource efficient solutions through exchanging best available data, approaches and measures in LCD; accelerate the transition to a circular economy by facilitating policy-science-business dialogues and dissemination of knowledge and deployment of best available technologies on green and low carbon technologies and social innovations, especially in urban areas (incl. solutions for integrated renewable energy, energy efficiency in buildings and improved waste management); stimulate green public procurement to facilitate demand for environmentally friendly goods, services and investments; support the LCD research cooperation in order to provide planning authorities with comprehensive information on long term alternatives; development of e-based harmonization and improvement tools and databases for research and policy development needs including project financing. Raise the public awareness on climate change and low-emission lifestyles. As many low emission climate measures are alos benefical for other policy areas, notably air quality, attention will be paid to cohermce and psoosible synergy effects e.g. with Air Quality Plans under Directive 2008/50/EC in case of exceedance of EU limit values and with National Air Pollution Control Programmes to ensure compliance with National Emmission Ceilings. 2. Climate change adaptation Adaptation can reduce the risks of climate change impacts and contribute to the well-being of populations, the security of assets, and the maintenance of ecosystem goods, functions and services now and in the future. A first step towards adaptation to future climate change is reducing vulnerability. Integration of adaptation into sectoral policy planning, design and decision making, including establishing synergies with preparedness and disaster risk reduction, is of high importance. Building adaptive capacity that essentially comprises a sound knowledge base and effective exchange of information among the various levels of governance, science and policy is crucial for effective selection and implementation of adaptation options. Adaptation planning and implementation can be enhanced through complementary actions across levels. Ensuring synergies with EU-wide initiatives, macro-regional cooperation should focus on issues of cross border interest in the region. In addition, it is important to consider cross-border issues in the development and implementation of the National Adaptation Strategies as well as in the national impact and vulnerability assessments. The development and implementation of the Baltic Sea region climate adaptation strategy and action plan79 strengthens efforts to such cooperation, based on understanding and coping with specific climate impacts within the BSR. In the future, the private sector has to play a more distinct role in adaptation efforts. This means adapting existing businesses to a changing climate and developing new businesses based on expected future adaptation needs. Macro-regional cooperation in this respect can facilitate innovation, increased competitiveness and market access. In order to support the BSR capacity to adapt the climate change, the Action is focusing on the following activities and initiatives: 2.1 facilitating the BSR climate change dialogue platform in order to: 2. 1.1 promote and support the implementation of the BSR climate adaptation strategy and its action plan; 2.1.2 support development, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of national climate adaptation strategies and action plans as well as sharing of ‘best practices’ in adaptation for specific sectors; 2.1.3 initiate and promote joint adaptation actions between all the relevant stakeholders across the region following the recommendations as outlined in the BSR climate adaptation strategy and action plan. 2.2 develop a more robust evidence base on the impacts and consequences of climate change, including sharing of common knowledge and data by building a BSR climate adaptation inventory including project financing.80 2.3 raise awareness on the need for action through capacity building with a special focus on adaptation on local and regional level. 2.4 initiate BSR climate forums bringing together a multidisciplinary group of people to reflect on climate adaptation in a policy-science-business set-up. Targets and indicators
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