Christian, what is your organization’s role in the FAIR2Adapt (F2A) project?
adelphi leads one out of six case studies within FAIR2Adapt. We focus on improving the data availability for climate risk assessments under the EU regulations for sustainable activities such as EU taxonomy or CSRD. We will accompany two businesses in preparing climate risk assessments as part of their EU sustainability reporting.
How will F2A optimize and contribute to the development of climate change adaptation (CCA) strategies?
A good climate change adaptation strategy is characterized by several key elements: It begins with a thorough understanding of the specific climate risks and vulnerabilities faced by a region or sector, incorporating scientific data and local knowledge with a comprehensive risk assessment. Leveraging accurate and up-to-date data, including climate projections, socioeconomic factors, and environmental conditions, is crucial for informed decision-making. Adaptation strategies should also be flexible to accommodate changing conditions and scalable to apply across different regions or sectors. The FAIR2Adapt project empowers stakeholders to implement robust, data-driven adaptation measures at national, regional, and local levels.
In your opinion, what do you think the importance of climate change mitigation methods will be like in the future?
The importance of climate change mitigation methods is expected to grow significantly in the future as the impacts of climate change become more pronounced and the urgency to limit global warming intensifies. Mitigation will be crucial in terms of preventing irreversible damage by reducing greenhouse gas emissions; economic benefits and cost savings by the transition to renewable energy sources; acceleration of technological innovation across various sectors, and co-benefits for health and society. With climate mitigation we can limit the extent of global warming, which in turn helps preserve biodiversity, protect natural resources, and maintain ecosystem services that are vital for human well-being.
Which are the most significant challenges and opportunities related to climate change adaptation in your opinion?
The main challenges are resources (financial and technological constraints), governance (the lack of cohesive policies and regulatory frameworks), data gaps, and social and economic inequities (vulnerable populations are often the most affected by climate change but have the least capacity to adapt). On the other hand, climate change adaptation opportunities can be innovation and technology (such as improved climate modeling, early warning systems, and resilient infrastructure designs), community engagement (local knowledge and practices can be invaluable in designing solutions that are culturally and contextually appropriate), policy integration (to create synergies that enhance resilience across sectors), and public-private partnerships (which can mobilise additional resources and expertise).
Which are your personal expectations for the FAIR2Adapt project?
“With FAIR2Adapt we will improve data availability for climate risk analyses and sensitise all actors involved for the benefits and importance of FAIR data provision.”
Could you briefly describe what the ambitions of your use case study are?
With our case study we want to provide insights into data used and needed by businesses to perform climate risk assessments for reporting under the EU taxonomy for sustainable activities. Further, we will collect local climate hazard data that is being used in such analyses. With our work we want to improve the accessibility to key datasets for climate risk analyses under the EU taxonomy.
