Climate change impacts and vulnerability in Europe 2016

Strengthening the knowledge base
The EU's civil protection legislation (EU, 2013a) is
preparing the ground for a more resilient European
society by developing national risk assessments and
refining risk management planning. As of 2015, all
Member States need to report their risk assessments
and risk management capabilities to the European
Commission at three-year intervals.
As mentioned above, the JRC has reviewed the status
and best practices of disaster loss data recording and
prepared guidance for EU Member States and, in 2016,
these activities will be integrated into an EU Disaster
Risk Management Knowledge Centre ( 152 ). Currently, no
comparable EU data exist on the impacts of disasters,
but in the future all EU Member States should have
comparable data and, thus, EU indicators on disaster
impacts (economic, human health, ecosystems) may
be based on data collected and reported by Member
States.
UNECE has published a report of 'Recommendations
on climate change-related statistics' (UNECE, 2014).
It mentions that additional statistics may need to
be developed to describe the social and economic
impacts of climate change, population vulnerability,
and mitigation and adaptation efforts. In 2015, a 'Task
force on measuring extreme events and disasters'
(UNECE, 2015) was set up, which aimed to provide
recommendations in 2016. The work can be expected
to provide input and be linked to the work mentioned
above under the Sendai Framework.
Regarding the United Nations sustainable
development strategy, an inter-agency and expert
group (coordinated by UN Statistics) is developing
a sustainable development goal indicator set
(IAEG-SDG, 2015). Many countries have provided
comments, including several EU Member States. The
European Commission (Eurostat) and the EEA also
provided some comments. The aim is to finalise the
work in 2016. It is not yet clear how the sustainable
development goal indicators will lead to changes in
EU data collection and EU indicators, in particular
regarding climate change adaptation. However, it can
be expected that, regarding disaster risks, the Sendai
Framework activities on indicators and, regarding
adaptation, the UNFCCC activities will be more relevant
and specific than the sustainable development goals.
The renewed European sustainable development
strategy was published in 2006. Since then, Eurostat
has prepared a monitoring report every two years,
the latest being in 2015 ( 153 ). The indicators and
information regarding climate change and energy
are very similar to those published in the annual
reports supporting the Europe 2020 strategy (see
Section 7.4.2). In 2016, a Communication from the
European Commission is expected on the future of the
sustainable development strategy, and on if and how
the United Nations sustainable development goals will
have an influence.
7.4.2 The Seventh Environment Action Programme,
EU 2020 strategy and environmental accounts
The Seventh Environment Action Programme to
2020, 'Living well, within the limits of our planet' (EU,
2013b), contains various objectives that are relevant
for climate change adaptation. The EEA will prepare
annual indicator reports from 2016 onwards, tracking
the progress in reaching the quantitative targets of
the Seventh Environment Action Programme, which
will be based mainly on existing EEA indicators. The
indicators of this report on climate change impacts
and vulnerability could provide some input, although
mainly as contextual information. The only specific
adaptation-related indicator that will be included is
the 'number of countries with a national adaptation
strategy and/or action plan in place'.
Europe 2020 is the EU's growth and jobs strategy
(2010), which aims to pave the way to a smart,
sustainable and inclusive future. Climate change
mitigation is covered through the same targets
on greenhouse emissions, renewable energy and
energy efficiency for 2020 as in the climate and
energy package (see Section 2.2). Climate change
vulnerability and adaptation are covered to only a very
limited extent. Eurostat has published annual reports
(Eurostat, 2015) on the progress made towards these
targets, which includes a figure on global temperature
and some qualitative information on the impacts of
climate change. A Communication from the European
Commission is expected by the end of 2016 that will
review the Europe 2020 strategy, including if and how
the United Nations sustainable development goals
may have an influence.
An EU regulation on environmental accounting (EU,
2011) provides the framework. These accounts track
the links between the environment and the economy
at EU, national, regional and industry levels, and
complement environmental statistics and indicators.
( 152 ) https://ec.europa.eu/jrc/en/news/new-knowledge-centre-help-eu-minimise-risk-disasters.
( 153 ) http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/sdi/indicators.
Climate change, impacts and vulnerability in Europe 2016 | An indicator-based report
321