Europe’s cities lag behind in adapting to climate change

Europe’s cities are lagging behind in adapting to climate change and its risks. This is the main conclusion of a new study published in Nature Climate Change with the outstanding participation of the Basque research centre Basque Centre for Climate Change (BC3). The work reveals that almost 70% of climate adaptation plans in European cities have significant inconsistencies, which severely limits their effectiveness in addressing growing climate risks.

“Europe is warming twice as fast as the rest of the world and our population is exposed to increasing climate risks such as floods or fires. Faced with this scenario, adaptation plans must be translated into concrete actions, with integrative, data-based approaches and clear monitoring mechanisms, to prevent the most vulnerable populations from being left unprotected,” says Marta Olazábal, Ikerbasque Research Associate Professor at BC3 and co-author of the article that stresses that this “adaptation gap” poses growing threats for 75% of Europeans living in cities.

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