Adaptation to Climate Change in the EU — the Spanish Case

Abstract

Climate change is a global concern and adaptation to the impacts it causes is also a global need as all countries, either wealthy or poor and wherever they are, will need to take action to adapt their social, economic and environmental systems to the effects and vulnerabilities derived from it. However, for adaptation, unlike for mitigation, there are few potential global goals around which to build an agreement and few activities that can be globally adopted and applied (mitigation itself being one of them); instead, every country must define its particular adaptation strategy according to its national circumstances, fitting it to its particular environmental and geographical features, to its specific social and economic foundations, and to its specific political and administrative arrangements. Adaptation is basically a locally driven process that has to be tailored, within every country, to the socioeconomic, geographical and environmental situation found at each particular site, taking into consideration a strong local and community-based component.