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Addressing climate risks in the daily management

18 November, 2019 - 15:26

Climate change is emerging despite the efforts for its mitigation, and the damage to properties and the loss of human lives due to extreme weather events have been increasing over the years.

There are many discussions held at the meetings of the Roundtable of the Baltic Sea Region Climate Dialogue Platform and policy recommendations from different forums and projects in the Baltic Sea Region. They indicate that the focus of the cooperation of BSR Countries and macro-region stakeholders for support to achieve EU climate and energy policy goals should be on the areas where national efforts and progress have been lacking and where the capacity to implement new policy requirements is missing. For example, while BSR countries, the Member States of the EU, have been performing well and are on track achieving 2020 goals on shifting from fossil fuels to renewables in power sector and reducing GHG emissions in sectors included into ETS (Emissions Trading Sector), not all of them are on track achieving national commitments in saving energy and limiting emission in Non-ETS sectors. It can be seen, for example, from the increase of the transport sector GHG emissions.

Cooperation on climate adaptation in the Baltic Sea Region should focus more on sectors vulnerable to climate risks

Recent Communication from the European Commission1 outlines a vision of the economic and societal transformations required, engaging all sectors of the economy and society to achieve the transition to net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. At the same time, cooperation on climate adaptation between the countries and stakeholders in the Baltic Sea Region should focus more on sectors vulnerable to climate risks. It should increase the capacity of sectors and local governments on assessing long-term climate risks and taking climate risks into account in their daily management and planning further development.

BSR WATER Platform is a good example of this initiative, bringing together partners representing diverse projects that have generated, through transnational cooperation, many replicable as well as unique outputs which aim to implement both the climate mitigation and adaptation goals of EU Strategy for Baltic Sea Region. By collecting and displaying variety of good practices, solutions, tools and experiences from variety of projects, the BSR WATER Platform and Baltic Smart Water Hub will enable anyone interested in resource efficiency and reducing carbon footprint in water sector, to get access to innovative solutions and expertise from the whole Baltic Sea Region.

 

Valdur Lahtvee
Council of the Baltic Sea States / EUSBSR Horizontal Action (HA) ‘Climate’

 


1 A European strategic long-term vision for a prosperous, modern, competitive and climate-neutral economy – A Clean Planet for All (Brussels, 28.11.2018; COM(2018) 773 final)