Valuing Climate Adaptation Helps Us Orient Our Compass Toward Effective and Resilient Pathways: Climate Adaptation Costing in a Changing World

The impacts of climatic shocks are already being felt across Europe and are bound to intensify in line with further climate change. Even rapid and far-reaching progress on decarbonization cannot avoid the extent of climate change that is already locked in due to past emissions. These trends call for urgent climate adaptation investment strategies that can prepare countries for a wide range of climate hazards and their complex impacts across communities and economic sectors. However, formulating concrete investment strategies can be challenging as adaptation needs are vast and difficult to estimate. To overcome this challenge, this report reviews evidence-based prioritization and costing approaches and illustrates their application in a series of case studies. These approaches can support policy makers in identifying bankable and effective adaptation investments, raising and allocating adequate financing, and thus ultimately facilitating more effective climate change adaptation across Europe.