EU Expert Talk and Workshop on Economics of Climate Adaptation
On February 28th, the CRED programme organized an EU expert talk and workshop on the economics of climate adaptation in partner countries, in collaboration with the GIZ Representation in Brussels and the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD).
The event brought together speakers and participants from organisations such as the European Commission (Directorate-General for International Partnerships, DG INTPA and Directorate-General for Climate Action, DG CLIMA) the European Parliament, the OECD, the World Bank, and many others. All participating organisations are actively involved in climate adaptation or macroeconomic modelling, with the goal of discussing ways to support partner countries in achieving climate resilience.
Linking climate change with economic agendas
Erica Gerretsen, now Director of DG INTPA for Human Development, Migration, Governance & Peace but at the time of the event responsible for macro-economic analysis at INTPA, emphasised the shift towards considering climate change as a short-term issue in her keynote. She underlined the importance of linking climate change with economic agendas. Ms. Gerretsen stated that climate change policy discussions are no longer only meant to be steered by climate and environment ministries but also by their economics and finance counterparts.
“Quality public finance is a prerequisite for linking climate change with economic agendas to ensure sustainability, not just from a climate point of view but also from a debt and public finance point of view.”
Erica Gerretsen, DG INTPA, Director for Human Development, Migration, Governance & Peace
Michal Nekvasil, Policy Officer at DG CLIMA working on Adaptation & Resilience to Climate Change, outlined key elements of the EU Adaptation Strategy from 2021. The strategy aims to achieve a climate resilient Europe by 2050 through smarter, systemic, and faster adaptation. Sebastian Homm presented the approach of modelling the macroeconomic impacts of climate change and adaptation investments piloted by the CRED programme.
Macroeconomic perspective might raise climate change awareness
The speakers were joined by Catherine Gamper (OECD) and Anika Terton (IISD) for a panel discussion. Ms. Gamper presented the work of the OECD Climate Change Adaptation Task Force (TFCCA) which is structured on the three pillars of climate risks, effective policy design, and specific adaptation measures. She highlighted that part of the Task Force’s work was to “make a conscious effort to focus work on OECD countries” given that for a long time, adaptation was not considered a priority in member countries.
From the side of Anika Terton, the National Adaptation Plan Global Network (NAP GN) was introduced. Sharing from her experience of working on climate adaptation plans with developing countries, she called for accelerating action and moving to implementation, given that relatively few national adaption plans were submitted so far and climate adaption processes sit in relatively “weaker” ministries. However, she concluded her intervention with an optimistic outlook. Ms. Terton emphasised that macroeconomic assessments can bring in a new perspective and involve ministries that have more budgetary power to raise awareness on the fact that climate change can impact all economic sectors. The concluding workshop discussed adaptation implementation and finance as well as potential future collaborations between the institutions.
About the CRED programme
On behalf of the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, and Nuclear Safety and under the umbrella of the International Climate Initiative, the CRED programme is implemented by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH to enable national modelling authorities to create long-term economic models for climate-resilient economic development.
