Climate Change in Eastern Europe

CLIMATE CHANGE IN EASTERN EUROPE

Adaptation

A balanced state policy of adaptation to climate change and the implementation of related measures are required to ensure the economic and environmental stability of the region. The table below presents some possible priority actions. The data have been taken from official sources, and expert opinions have been used where no data were available. The practical development of adaptation plans has hardly started in any country of Eastern Europe, to say nothing of their implementation. International experience has shown that the development and implementation of effective adaptation measures, and even research for their scientific, technological and economic justification, requires significant financial resources. In the short term the allocation of sufficient financing for these goals without the use of international mechanisms is very unlikely in the countries of the region 3 . Adaptation requires long-term investment options in a situation of high uncertainty – explained by the absence of agreement on future regional climate change as current science is able to predict only the probability of hazardous weather events, not their actual occurrence. Above all, adaptation requires political support and legislative provision. At the moment, the lack of both can be linked to the fact that there are many other priorities for governments, including urgent economic issues, and that awareness of the real hazards that will be caused by climate change remains poor.

3 Considering the transitional character of Eastern Europe’s economies, the states are often unable to finance the activities they plan fully, or indeed at all. For example, the Climatic Programme of Ukraine in 1998-2002 was intended to define the main causes and consequences of climate change in the regions of Ukraine and to create the scientific basis for assessing the possible impacts of regional climate change on natural resources, economic development and the environment. However the actual funding provided for programme implementation was about 16% of the required amount, and the lack of funds has left many of the programme’s objectives unfulfilled. 54