Focus on Adaptation Strategies and Plans in Italy and Croatia

Following the EU strategy on adaptation to climate change, all countries are developing own specific national adaptation planning and strategy.
Life Sec Adapt partners have had the opportunity to compare with italian and croatian national adaptation policies in occasion of the last two Capacity Building meetings.

The Italian Ministry for Environment, Land and Sea (MATTM) in June 2015 has approved the Italian National Adaptation Strategy to Climate Change (NAS). The NAS provides a “State of the art on scientific knowledge of impacts vulnerabilities and adaptation of climate” that illustrate in a depth, for national territory, sectors which are affected on future impact of climate change.
MATTM is working on the implementation of the NAS through the development of the Italian National Adaptation Plan for Climate Change (NAP), currently under approving after the consultation activities. The NAP will provide a set of adaptation actions in order to mitigate and take advantage from climate change for the most vulnerable sectors already identified with NAS:
• water resources (quantity and quality);
• desertification, soil degradation and drought;
• hydrogeological risk (landslides, flooding and erosion);
• biodiversity and ecosystems (terrestrial ecosystems, marine ecosystems, inland water ecosystems and transition ecosystems);
• health;
• forestry;
• agriculture, aquaculture, marine fishery;
• energy (production and consumption);
• coastal zones;
• tourism;
• urban settlements;
• critical infrastructures (cultural heritage, infrastructures for transport, industry);
• and 2 special cases: vulnerability assessments for the mountain areas of the Alps and Apennines and the Po river basin.
The NAP represents a national framework for other ministries, regions, local authorities with technical-scientific background information, for the integration of adaptation within policy processes.

The presentation of Italian NAP and CAP during the V Capacity Building of Life Sec Adapt is available here.

The Croatian Ministry of Environmental Protection and Energy has created the strategy named Draft of Climate Change Strategy in Republic of Croatia for the period up to 2040 with the view up to 2070 (White Paper) . The drafting of the adaptation Strategy was preceded by the creation of so-called Green Paper , based on technical documents related to climate modelling that resulted in climate projections for the Republic of roatia by 2040 and 2070. In addition to the simulation of the “historical” climate for the period 1971-2000 Regional Climate Model (RegCM) has calculated changes (projections) for the future climate two periods: 2011-2040; 2041-2070 assuming the IPCC scenario for the development of greenhouse gases RCP 4.5 and RCP 8.5.
The main, long-term objective of the Adaptation strategy is to reduce the vulnerability of social and natural systems to the adverse impacts of climate change, i.e. strengthen their resilience and ability to recover from these impacts.
Sectors included in climate change impact and climate impact assessment of the Strategy are:
• Hydrology, Water and Sean Resources;
• Agriculture;
• Forestry;
• Natural ecosystems and Biodiversity;
• Energy;
• Tourism;
• Health.
Based on the list of all identified measures of climate change adaptation (82 measures, of which 80 are sector measures, plus 2 measures: KM-01 and RP-01 not taken into account because they are not part of a sector), sectoral measures are distributed in five groups of measures based on national priorities of the adaptation Strategy:
1. Ensuring sustainable regional and urban development;
2. Provision of preconditions for the economic development of rural areas, coastal areas and islands;
3. Ensuring sustainable energy development;
4. Strengthen the management capacities through a networked monitoring and early warning system;
5. Ensuring continuity of research activities.

The presentation of Croatian National Adaptation Strategy during the IV Capacity Building of Life Sec Adapt is available here.