Overview
RESPONSES – European responses to climate change deep emissions reductions and mainstreaming of mitigation and adaptation.
The FP7 RESPONSES project investigated EU policy action on climate change. Its objective was to identify and assess integrated EU climate-change policy responses that achieve ambitious mitigation and environmental targets and, at the same time, reduce the Union’s vulnerability to inevitable climate-change impacts. First, the project contributed to the development of a new global very low scenario for greenhouse gas emissions, which would achieve the EU’s policy target of no more than 2°C global warming by 2100. In developing this scenario, RESPONSES is contributing directly to EU policy and to the work of the IPCC on future climate projections. Second, RESPONSES investigated how considerations about climate change impacts can be integrated into EU sectoral policies. So, for instance, given a projection of changing flood risks as a result of climate change in many parts of the EU, are EU Cohesion Policy investments in infrastructure taking such risks into account? Or, given changes in the distribution of threatened bird species under climate change, is the EU’s nature conservation policy flexible enough to continue to protect these species in future? The project is worked closely with European policymakers to ensure its results can influence policy choices. The main outputs of the project were:
•A set of global low emission scenarios, differentiated by key countries;
•Options and strategies for integrating mitigation and resilience to climate impacts into EU policies;
•A validated strategic climate assessment approach
Other information
The RESPONSES project was funded under the 7th Framework Programme of the European Commission, Grant Agreement number 244092.
