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Nordic countries slow on adapting to impacts of climate change
Signs of progress: the metro transport system in Copenhagen has been designed in expectation of sea level rise. Photo: Flickr C.C 2.0
New initiatives may speed up the process on climate change adaptation. International conference sheds light on strategies for adaptation, and some signs of progress.
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The Nordic countries are considered to be relatively less vulnerable to climate change, but nevertheless highly adaptive due to their financial resources, education, institutions, technology, etc.
Not always willing and able
However, actual actions to respond to climate change are still limited.
"An increasing number of Nordic actors are moving from being intimidated by uncertainty about climate change to starting to face the challenge of adaptation to its impacts".
This was one of the key messages ahead of the first international conference on climate adaptation in the Nordic countries.
The conference, which was coordinated and co-funded by SEI and the Swedish research programme Mistra-SWECIA, involved an interdisciplinary mix of experts within climate adaptation policy and research. It featured discussions about a number of emerging issues that need to be addressed in research as well as in practice and policy.
Many presentations highlighted that local adaptation often needs national policy signals – an incentive or regulation at the national level that enables local action. Another challenge is to move from working only in time-limited stand-alone projects to mainstreaming adaptation into existing institutions.
In short, the challenge and opportunity highlighted at the conference is for climate adaptation to become an integral part of building a robust and sustainable society.
Early progress
But some work on adaptation is already on the way. In Norway, municipalities have started putting adaptation issues high on the political agenda.
In Finland, measures are already being incorporated in regional land use planning to account for flood risk as well as new regulations to ensure the safety of hydro-electric dams and in Denmark, the metro transport system in Copenhagen has been designed in expectation of sea level rise.
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