ESPON CLIMATE - Climate Change and Territorial Effects on Regions and Local Economies in Europe

Thematic scope
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has been pivotal in raising awareness on the costs of human inaction and interference with the climate system. The IPCC also indicated the urgency for studies disaggregated to the regional and even local scale. Furthermore, the IPCC identified a strong need for scenarios at regional and local scales to enable appropriate impact assessments. In its Green Paper “Adapting to climate change in Europe”, the European Commission also indicates that more research is needed to address the gaps in understanding global warming and its potential impacts on the environment. Against this backdrop, this project shall analyse how and to which degree climate change will impact on the competitiveness and cohesion of European regions and Europe as a whole. In addition, it shall investigate in which way policy can contribute to mitigate climate change, and to adapt to and manage those results of climate change that cannot be avoided, while making sure that synergies of mitigation and adaptation policies are being exploited.

Please read more about the main research areas and main results envisaged.

Lead Partner
TU Dortmund University, Germany.
Detailed information on the contracted project team can be found under Transnational Project Group.

Sounding Board
Eduarda Marques da Costa, Portugal
Pekka Erik Kangas, Finland

Budget: € 999.418,60

Project’s lifetime: March 2009 – April 2011

Delivery of Reports
Inception Report: 23 June 2009
Interim Report: 23 December 2009
Draft Final Report: 25 February 2011
Final Report: 31 May 2011

Publishing
Reports will be published once they are approved by the ESPON Monitoring Committee

More information
Please contact the Project Expert at the ESPON Coordination Unit:
Michaela GENSHEIMER, e-mail: michaela.gensheimer@espon.eu