Strengthening Climate Adaptation through European Knowledge Exchange

European countries have extensive knowledge and a growing number of climate adaptation initiatives, yet the implementation of climate resilience measures often lags behind the escalating impacts of climate change. At the same time, policy and regulatory frameworks are evolving rapidly, driven in part by EU programmes and national adaptation strategies. Against this backdrop, European exchange on what works, what fails, and how maladaptation can be avoided is becoming increasingly important. The project “Strengthening European Networking on Climate Adaptation” responds directly to this need and addresses issues at the science-policy interface.

adelphi (together with its project partners) supports the German Environment Agency (UBA) in identifying relevant and innovative adaptation topics across the policy cycle and in systematically synthesising the state of European research. Building on this, the consortium facilitates exchange with European actors to develop practical entry points for improving science-policy transfer and making more targeted use of windows of opportunity. Another focus is to assess systematically where Germany can learn from other countries and vice versa. adelphi leads the project and coordinates the work packages and collaboration within the consortium. Thematic priorities include disinformation, financing, resilience by design, and cross-border climate risks.

Key deliverables include a structured overview of priority topics as a shared working basis, as well as several expert papers synthesising the European evidence base on selected adaptation themes. In addition, documented workshop outcomes and follow-up in-depth analyses will be produced in the form of articles or policy-oriented transfer formats.