German Climate Preparedness Portal

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DASGerman Strategy for Adaptation to Climate Change (DAS)

Dear visitors,

The impacts of climate change can already be felt in Germany. Extreme weather events such as heat waves and heavy rainfall are becoming more frequent and more severe. By taking these changes into account at an early stage in our activities and plans, we can succeed in dealing with the consequences of climate change and make the necessary adaptations.

We, the Interministerial Working Group “Adaptation Strategy”, have been working together since 2009 to actively push ahead with climate change adaptation measures. Now it is time for implementation; all the key players in society—from the federal government and federal state administrations and municipal authorities to members of civil society—need to have an understanding of the risks and opportunities of climate change for their sector and to get prepared.

At the same time, we are setting up the appropriate political framework to take precautionary measures against the effects of climate change by considering the climate-related risks and adaptation measures in all sectors. For example, climate change adaptation is a guiding principle for planning in the German building code and must be taken into account in all urban redevelopment projects. Furthermore, the Federal Ministry for the Environment provides fundings to key players who want to prepare their municipality, their company or their organisation for the impacts of climate change such as periods of extreme heat, flooding or torrential rain.

The motto of the KLiVO portal is therefore "Our assignment: to provide information on precautionary measures against the effects of climate change". We would like to take you with us on this journey and look forward to your interest and your involvement!

The Interministerial Working Group “Adaptation Strategy”

Klimaresiliente Siedlung

German Strategy for Adaptation to Climate Change (DAS)

In 2008, the federal government adopted the German Strategy for Adaptation to Climate Change (DAS). DAS aims to identify and reduce Germany's vulnerabilities in regard to the consequences of climate change, as well as maintaining or strengthening our capacity for adaptation in the country's natural, social and economic systems. The Action Plans for Adaptation underpin the goals formulated in the DAS through various specific activities.

The strategy for adaptation is diverse and addresses 16 sectors:

Infrastruktur

InfrastructuresConstruction Industry, Energy Sector, Traffic and Transport Infrastructure

Land

LandSoils, Biological Diversity, Agriculture and Forestry Sector

Land

Site and Layout Planning and
Civil Protection
Spatial, Regional and Urban Development Planning, Civil Protection and Disaster Control

Wasserwirtschaft

WaterWater Balance, Water Management, Coastal and Marine Protection, Fishing Industry

Menschliche Gesundheit

HealthHuman Health

Wirtschaft

EconomyIndustry and Commerce, Tourism, Finance and Insurance Sector

Implementation of the DAS

Since the Strategy for Adaption to Climate Change was adopted in 2008, a lot of things have happened - data has been collected, research has been done into the consequences of climate change, new instruments have been developed and various measures have been implemented. In the future too, we will present the consequences of climate change and adaption measures undertaken on an ongoing basis in the form of a monitoring report and will regularly reassess the future vulnerability of Germany, evaluate the adaption process on a continuous basis and press ahead with progress reports and action plans.

The federal government is now bundling together all acitivities concerned with the implementation of the DAS along with the steadily growing body of knowledge on the consequences of climate change and adaption measures in the Climate Preparedness Portal.

The individual products of the DAS are as follows:

Progress report on the DAS with Action Plan for Adaptation II and Vulnerability Analysis

The progress report on the DAS from the end of 2015 draws a balance of the various nationwide activities undertaken and presents the ongoing and future measures for adaptation to climate change in the Action Plan II.

The Action Plan for Adaptation was drawn up in dialogue with various federal ministers as well as federal state and municipal authorities, scientists and groups from civil society. In future, a progress report will be issued every four years with an updated Action Plan.

The vulnerability analysis takes a look ahead to the future – in what areas will Germany be affected by climate change in the future, or rather where is Germany vulnerable when it comes to the negative consequences of climate change? This is precisely the question that the Government Agency Network for Vulnerability is currently investigating; they are presenting the areas where Germany will be affected by future climate change, both in terms of regions and differentiated according to various sectors. Not only is climate data taken into consideration in the process; links are also created with important regional data (for example, population structure, income and the economy). The next vulnerability analysis will be published in 2021.

Guidelines for Analysis of Climate Effects and Vulnerability

The Guidelines for Analysis of Climate Effects and Vulnerability give methodological recommendations for carrying out regional and national analyses of climate effects and vulnerability and refer to sources of helpful materials and information. The guidelines are intended to relieve those carrying out such analyses of a part of the methodological preliminary work. The core target groups are the federal and state authorities. They are also aimed at funding authorities at national and federal state level, as well as research and consultancy institutions and further interested parties both within Germany and abroad.

Monitoringreport on the DAS

The Monitoring Report (German) provides an overview of the observed consequences of climate change and of those adaptation measures which have already been introduced in Germany. It uses measured data of the changes which can already be established as a result of climate change and represents these in a compact form. The consequences of climate change are so diverse that there is a hardly any area of life in society, politics or business that will remain untouched in the coming years and decades. The first Monitoring Report was published in 2015 and it is updated every four years.

Evaluation on the DAS

The Evaluation of the German Adaptation Strategy to Climate Change (DAS) (German) analyses the development and impact of the DAS. The evaluation focuses on the period since the publication of the progress report on the DAS in 2015. Among other things, the evaluation analyses the extent to which adaptation to climate change has been embedded at the federal level and private provision has been strengthened.
In addition, the evaluation analyses the implementation status of the measures of the Action Plan for Adaptation II (APA II) of 2015 and examines success factors and obstacles to their implementation.
On the basis of the analysis, the evaluation report makes recommendations on how adaptation to climate change in Germany, and in particular the further development of the DAS, can be strengthened.
On behalf of the Interministerial Working Group on Adaptation (IMAA), the Federal Environment Agency commissioned the first evaluation of the DAS. The evaluation was carried out in 2017/2018 by adelphi (Berlin) and Ceval (Saarbrücken) in order to guarantee the independence of the evaluation.

The report Methodology for the Evaluation of the German Adaptation Strategy (DAS) presents the concept for the evaluation and further development of the German Adaptation Strategy, a description of the survey instruments that shall be used and a detailed description on how the concept was developed.

Due to the different structures of the adaptation processes between the federal and federal state levels, but also between the federal states themselves, the methodology developed for the evaluation of the DAS cannot be unconditionally transferred to other levels. Therefore, the manual on the development of methods for the evaluation of adaptation strategies (German) contains some general information on strategy evaluation, provides an overview of aspects that should be taken into account when setting up an evaluation, and finally deals with the central components of an evaluation.

DAS core service "Climate and Water"

For Germany's adaptation to the impacts of climate change, as well as to extreme weather events, reliable data and decision-making bases based on current scientific findings (IPCC Assessment Reports, research programs) are required on an ongoing basis. For climatological, oceanographic and hydrological parameters and services, this task is performed by the DAS core service "Climate and Water". This service has been established as a permanent task at the federal higher authorities of the BMVI - Deutscher Wetterdienst (DWD), German Federal Institute of Hydrology (BfG), Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Agency (BSH) and the Federal Waterways Engineering and Research Institute (BAW) - and is now being built up gradually. It will provide an up-to-date and cross-field database for the past (observations) and the future (projections) that will support planning processes to mitigate the effects of climate change, as well as extreme weather events. Research services that were previously one-time studies and exemplary can be consolidated, automated, and transformed into a sustainably available and up-to-date service offered through the DAS core service. This is carried out in close contact with the customers of the service.

To the page of the DAS core service "Climate and Water"