Adaptation Action Plan of the German Strategy for Adaptation to Climate Change 2011.

The German Strategy for Adaptation to Climate Change (Deutsche AnpassungsStrategie – DAS, December 2008) created the framework for a medium-term national adaptation process that is to be carried out with the Länder and other social groups, and in which the risks of climate change will be progressively identified, the actions that may be necessary specified, appropriate objectives defined, and possible adaptation measures developed and implemented. The strategy also delineates Germany’s international responsibilities.
This Action Plan fleshes out the objectives and options for action laid down in the German Adaptation Strategy with specific activities to be carried out by the German Federal Government in the years to come, and makes links with other national strategic processes (including the High-Tech Strategy 2020, the National Strategy on Biological Diversity and the National Forest Strategy) explicit. Apart from selected projects undertaken in cooperation with the Länder, the Adaptation Action Plan covers activities in four fields above all: 1) Providing knowledge, informing, enabling. This field encompasses the initiatives taken by the Federal Government to build up the knowledge base, provide and communicate information, expand Germany’s research and information infrastructure, and support dialogue, participation and the building of networks among actors. 2) Framework-setting by the German Federal Government. This field includes projects with which the Federal Government is offering or is going to examine incentives and fundamentals for adaptation in the fields ‘setting legal or technical frameworks’, ‘standardisation’ and ‘funding policy’ as ways of supporting actors. 3) Activities for which the Federal Government is directly responsible. This field highlights how the Federal Government is taking climate change into consideration in its functions as an owner of land, properties and infrastructure, and a constructor of infrastructure. To this end the Action Plan contains, for example, proposals for the incorporation of adaptation aspects into the Assessment System for ‘Sustainable Construction in Federal Buildings’, as well as for the planning, management and maintenance of transport infrastructure. 4) International responsibilities. This field sets out the contributions that Germany is making to the organisation and implementation of the “Adaptation Framework” adopted in Cancún under the Framework Convention on Climate Change, to development cooperation, through the International Climate Initiative, in research cooperation and through other international activities undertaken by the ministries that are concerned with adaptation to climate change; apart from this, links are established to activities undertaken at the EU level.
The text consists of 8 Parts as follows: Introduction (A); Approach and activities of the German Federal Government (B); Summary of adaptation activities in the Länder (C); Activities undertaken by the German Federal Government in cooperation with the Länder (D); Examples of independent adaptation initiatives taken by non-state actors (E); Examples of regional/integrated approaches (F); Looking ahead – what are the next steps in the process? (G); Annexes (H).