Outlook on Climate Change Adaptation in the Western Balkan Mountains

Fisheries Policy. The EC is also seeking to enhance the resilience of infrastructure to climate change in Europe through a review of the existing standards in the fields of energy, transport and construction.

Finally, the EC is promoting the use of insurance to protect against disasters, and other financial products for risk management and reduction in the European market.

The “Climate Change Committee” representing EU Member States coordinates the adaptation actions based on the Strategy. In addition, each country has appointed a national contact point to coordinate communication between the state and the Commission. The Commission envisages maintaining an open dialogue with stakeholders to ensure proper and timely implementation of the Strategy over time. The European Environment Agency (EEA) assists European countries and EU institutions in deepening their understanding on ways to meet adaptation needs arising within regions, sectors or communities by regularly publishing updated reports on adaptation with a pan-European scope (see for instance EEA, 2012; 2013; 2014a; 2014b; 2015). According to the EEA, there is an appetite for further research that would support a sound and coherent political response on adaptation to climate change in Europe (EEA, 2013). Although the transferability of adaptation knowledge across European and neighbouring countries is considered key to facilitating countries at early stages of adaptation planning to swiftly and efficiently develop and finalize the policy process and implement concrete measures, the context-dependency of adaptation may affect the actual transferability. Therefore, special consideration should be given to subregional and local vulnerability, as well as to exposure and adaptive capacity factors, when drafting policies and plans for adaptation within a larger Europe. Several cooperation initiatives are increasingly being undertaken on adaptation to climate change in the Western Balkan countries as a subregion. The EU has financed cooperation programmes and projects for the broader South-East Europe transnational region and other initiatives as part of the EU accession process to support candidate countries to transpose and implement a new set of climate change legislation.

Shepherd huts in the mountains, Bosnia and Herzegovina

The EU Forest Strategy was adopted by the Commission in 2013 (EC, 2013e). In the context of the new challenges facing forests and the forest sector from a changing climate, the Strategy mentions the importance of adaptation actions to be undertaken in synergy with actions to mitigate climate change. The 2013 EU Forest Strategy

In particular, it calls onMember States to demonstrate “how they enhance their forests’ adaptive capacities and resilience, building on the actions proposed in the EU Strategy on Adaptation to Climate Change and the Green Paper on Forest Protection and information, such as bridging knowledge gaps and mainstreaming adaptation action in forest policies.”

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