Climate change, impacts and vulnerability in Europe ... - MemoFin.fr

Executive summaryThe causes of the most costly climate impacts areprojected to differ strongly across EuropeThe most costly impacts in southern Europe areprojected to be increases in energy demand and heatwaves, in western Europe coastal flooding and heatwaves, in northern Europe coastal and river floods,and in eastern Europe river floods.The damage costs from climate impacts can bereduced significantly by mitigation and adaptationactionsSignificant reductions in damage costs can beachieved by global and European mitigationpolicies, consistent with the UNFCCC 2 °C objective,in combination with adaptation actions.On-going and planned monitoring and research atnational and EU level can improve assessmentsof past and projected impacts of climate change,thereby enhancing the knowledge base foradaptationImproved information on past and projectedclimate impacts and on the vulnerability ofenvironmental and social systems is crucial forthe planning and implementation of effectiveadaptation measures. Climate-ADAPT providesa platform for sharing this information withpolicymakers at the European, national andsubnational level.Longer time series and greater spatial coverage ofclimate data could be achieved through improvedmonitoring of Essential Climate Variables fromin situ stations and satellites, and reanalysis ofEuropean climate data.The availability of consistent and comparablesocio‐economic scenarios at the Europeanlevel could improve integrated climate changevulnerability assessments. The availability of suchscenarios, and the use of comparable methods,could also improve the comparability of nationalimpact and vulnerability assessments.The indicators informing this assessment arebased mainly on EU-wide research and on globaldatabases. In the future some indicators on climateimpacts and adaptation may be based on datacollected from member countries.18 Climate change, impacts and vulnerability in Europe 2012