23 March 2012: The European Commission and the European Environment Agency (EEA) have launched the Climate-ADAPT website to provide information to policy makers, engineers, planners and administrators about impacts, vulnerability and climate change adaptation in Europe.

The website will be managed in coordination with the Biodiversity Information System for Europe, the Water Information System for Europe and the Land Use Data Centre, given the cross-cutting nature of climate change adaptation. Examples of adaptation actions include: adapting fishing industry to northward shifting fish stocks; building coastal defense systems; giving more space to rivers; and addressing increased precipitation variability and drought risk. The website will include information from voluntary submissions by 25 countries, including their national strategies and plans, assessments, climate services and priorities for action.

The tools provided by the website include: the Adaptation Support Tool to assist in the development of adaptation policies; the map viewer that integrates data on climate change impacts, vulnerability and risks from a number of research projects; ClimWatAdapt, an integrated assessment framework for assessing climate vulnerability and possible responses; CLIMSAVE Integrated Assessment Platform, allowing stakeholders to assess impacts and vulnerability for a number of sectors, such as agriculture, forests, biodiversity, freshwater, coasts and urban development; and Quantitative Microbial Risk Assessment (QMRA) to estimate the health risks of climate change. The website will support the comprehensive EU climate change adaptation strategy, expected in 2012. [EEA Press Release] [Climate-ADAPT]