Climate ChangeAdaptation

The IPCC's 5th Assessment Report of the IPCC emphasises the urgent need to adapt to the impacts of climate change in order to minimise the associated risks. In general, less developed countries are much more at risk than industrialised countries. Nevertheless, a change in climate regime including climate impacts is also expected for Germany.

In 2008, the German Federal Government adopted the "German Strategy for Adaptation to Climate Change". It was further developed and elaborated in 2011 when the government, in cooperation with the federal states agreed on an "Adaptation Action Plan". Parallel to this, most states also developed regional adaptation strategies.

Designing strategies and methods of sustainable development processes at different political levels in a climate robust way is challenging, for instance in the areas of energy transition and sustainable urban transformation. Resilience criteria such as robustness, redundancy, and flexibility should be incorporated into existing methods of "climate proofing" in the future. In addition to this, new standards and norms and the development of sufficient capacity, e.g. regarding urban areas and infrastructure planning, are also lacking.

Bosco Verticale
Green view: Nearly 900 trees growing on balconies of two Milanese high-rise buildings. Nature helps with adapting to the impacts of climate change and gets cities involved.

In the Wuppertal Institute's research projects on climate change adaptation, the various debates and disciplines are always consolidated. The research topics are usually technical infrastructure and urban development with particular consideration of their interfaces, social integration, and design. As part of a strategic policy advising, the Institute supports public and private institutions in developing integrated approaches to climate change adaptation. Conceptually, this requires the use of a wide range of research methods, such as developing guiding visions, participatory processes, and multi-criteria analysis; more detailed information is available in the paper: Methods of Climate Change Adaptation

Projects

Here you find research activities in the field of climate change adaptation.

Related projects

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