Guidance on Integrating Climate Change and Biodiversity into ...

EU Climate and EnergyPackageRoadmap for moving to alow-carbon economy in2050• To meet the EU’s obligation under international law and in line with European ambition.Member States are required to:• Collectively reduce their combined GHG emissions in 2020 by at least 20 % compared to1990 levels. Note: the EU has offered to take on a 30 % target for 2020 if other majoremitters contribute adequately to global mitigation efforts.• Produce 20 % of their combined energy from renewable sources.• Improve energy efficiency to reduce primary energy use by 20 % compared with projectedlevels.• The collective EU target of reducing emissions by 20 % by 2020 is to be achieved by:o The EU Emissions Trading System, the backbone of the EU mitigation effort, whichsets a cap on emissions from the most polluting sectors, including over 11000factories, power plants and other installations, including airlines. By 2020, the capshould result in a 21 % reduction relative to 2005 levels. The EU ETS covers about40 % of all EU emissions.o The ‘effort sharing decision’, which operates outside the EU ETS and establishesannual binding GHG emission targets for individual Member States for the 2013-2020 period. These concern emissions from sectors such as waste, agriculture,buildings, etc.• The ‘20-20-20’ targets are supported by the long-term target of 85-90 % reduction in GHGemissions against 1990 levels by 2050.• The Roadmap looks beyond the 2020 targets and sets out a plan to meet the long-termtarget of reducing EU emissions by 80-95 % by 2050. The strategy takes a sectoralperspective, looking at how the heavy-emissions sectors such as power generation,transport, buildings and construction, industry and agriculture can make the transition toa low-carbon economy over the coming decades.Energy Roadmap 2050 • In the Energy Roadmap 2050, the EU explores the challenges posed by delivering the EU’sdecarbonisation objective, while at the same time ensuring security of energy supply andcompetitiveness.Flagship initiative for aresource-efficient Europe• It supports the shift to a resource-efficient, low-carbon economy to achieve sustainablegrowth. It provides a long-term framework for action to factor in resource efficiency in abalanced manner in many policy areas, including climate change, energy, transport,industry, agriculture, biodiversity and regional development.3.1.2 Climate change adaptation — overview of current status, trends and policyresponsesCurrent status, trends and key driversRegardless of the success of mitigation action, some degree of climate change is already ‘locked in’and we are feeling the effects of our changing climate already. Several studies have assessed thecurrent status, trends and key drivers for climate change and provide a useful background. SeeAdapting to climate change — SOER 2010 thematic assessment (EEA, 2010) 12 and the EuropeanClimate Adaptation Platform: CLIMATE-ADAPT, 13 as well as other documents listed in Annex 1 to this<strong>Guidance</strong>.Policy responseAdaptation involves adjusting our behaviour to limit harm and exploiting the beneficial opportunitiesarising from climate change. However, our level of preparedness, resilience and vulnerability are noteasily quantifiable, making it difficult to set hard and fast targets. But climate change mitigationtargets are more tangible. In the EU, the focus is on integrating (‘mainstreaming’) adaptation into allrelevant policies and instruments and facilitating effective, consistent adaptation action at national,regional and local levels. For example, the legislative proposals for the EU regional policy (2014-2020) include ex-ante conditionalities linked with climate change aspects, which need to be met by12 http://www.eea.europa.eu/soer/europe/adapting-to-climate-change.13 http://climate-adapt.eea.europa.eu/<strong>Guidance</strong> on integrating climate change and biodiversity into SEA 23