Countries responding to the self-assessment survey have recognised transnational cooperation as relevant for adaptation. There are several different origins of this awareness. Shared resources (e.g. water or nature protection areas, mountain areas) or impacts may provide natural platforms for transnational cooperation in adaptation. The EU funding instruments for transnational cooperation have clearly contributed to deepening transnational cooperation with an emphasis on adaptation in several focal regions by supporting specific projects (EC, 2014). Transnational cooperation in adaptation also warrants consideration at the sector level, for example in energy infrastructure and transport.
The lack of explicit descriptions of transnational adaptation options in the self-assessment survey may reflect the relatively early stage of the work. Six countries reported to have carried out risk or vulnerability assessments at transnational level, but of the 12 countries that reported to have identified adaptation options on the basis of such assessments, only one had identified options specific for the transnational level. The deepening of active transnational cooperation as seen in several regions may change the situation. Ongoing projects in, for example, the Alpine region suggest that options for joint adaptation activities are being explored. In some cases the responses to the self-assessment survey may also have failed to bring out the transnational dimension if a sector perspective such as water has dominated the practical work, for example under the Water Framework Directive. The responses may also have missed a part of the activities that have emerged under the auspices of regional conventions or treaties such as those for regional seas or transboundary resources. These conventions are not primarily climate or adaptation oriented, but climate change impacts and adaptation are being increasingly recognised as important topics as illustrated by the above examples.
The management and protection of shared transboundary resources and environmental conditions have increasingly recognised that adaptation to climate change is an emerging issue that has to be taken into account. The Water Convention of the UNECE is a case in point and management activities on transboundary waters have started to pay attention to climate change adaptation (UNECE, 2009). Within Europe this has also been reflected in the activities guided by the Water Framework Directive (EC, 2000).
There are obvious instrumental reasons for recognising climate change in the long-term management of transboundary resources. For example, flood risk management has to consider possibilities of changes in hazards, and agreements on the use of shared water resources need to pay attention to potential changes in hydrology that can affect possibilities for sustainable abstraction. Concrete transnational measures related to, for example, flood management and warning systems for extreme events have been developed and provide a base for encouraging further transnational cooperation in reducing vulnerability and implementing adaptation in relevant sectors. Transnational cooperation in adaptation may also include generic building of adaptive capacity such as the harmonisation of data and indicators for monitoring change.
European regional conventions on the protection of the environment, including sea areas, have initiated activities that include assessment of climate change impacts and considerations of adaptation. For example the OSPAR Commission has published an assessment of climate change mitigation and adaptation (2009) and a similar synthesis has been published for the Baltic Sea (HELCOM, 2013). In these the starting point is generally the impacts and vulnerabilities, but eventually they lead to considerations of adaptation measures. At the European level the proposed Framework Directive for maritime spatial planning and integrated coastal management (EC, 2013b) is intended to support also adaptation that recognises cross-border activities as appropriate.
The examples above suggest that there are several existing fora for developing and implementing transnational adaptation strategies to deal with climate change. While the focus to date has been on water and coastal areas, there are other transnational issues relevant to adaptation (e.g. biodiversity, spatial planning) that are yet to link to adaptation and there are instruments for transboundary cooperation where adaptation to climate change may become an increasingly relevant issue although it has not yet been extensively recognised. For example, the 1992 UNECE Convention on the Transboundary Effects of Industrial Accidents may be relevant in considering the possible consequences of extreme climatic events. At the EU level this would also apply to the Directive on the control of major-accident hazards involving dangerous substances (2012/18/EU), which currently recognises transboundary impacts without making reference to climatic factors affecting the risks or consequences. There are also other forms of transnational cooperation such as that between cities rather than states (Bontenbal and van Lindert, 2009), where the similarities of context motivate cooperation. Within the EU, activities in the Mayors Adapt initiative launched under the Covenant of Mayors in 2014 is an example of transnational cooperation on urban adaptation. The Covenant of Mayors was also instrumental in putting adaptation on the agenda at the Warzaw summit of the UNFCCC in November 2013 where representatives of cities, city organisations and local authorities discussed ways to enhance adaptation and resilience at the local level (Covenant of Mayors, 2013).
The findings of the self-assessment survey clearly show the importance of pan-European initiatives in strengthening transnational cooperation. Several different instruments have contributed, many of which are project-based relying on support from, for example, Life+, Interreg and in some cases the EU framework programmes for research. The challenge for these project-based adaptation strategies is to institutionalise the practices so that activities continue past the lifetime of a project. A dense web of policy networks on the European level may not be sufficient if institutionalised links between the major actors and institutions are missing as observed by Grande and Peschke (1999) in the area of science and technology policy. Project-based funding was not able to create the necessary institutionalised links, which is one of the reasons behind, for example, the emphasis on joint programming initiatives in the European science policy. The self-assessment survey has shown that a comparable “joint programming of transnational adaptation” is only emerging.
Institutionalisation requires agreements on responsibilities and funding, and practical management, which is generally more difficult than coming to a shared vision. Effective cooperation demands a functional institutional base as shown in many projects on shared natural resources or river basins (Dieltjens and Van Den Langenbergh, 2005). It may not, however, be necessary to establish specific institutions for transnational adaptation. Transnational cooperation on adaptation can be integrated into a wider cooperation framework. For example, in a Portuguese-Spanish coastal region the co-responsibility for adaptation was included in the institutions for coastal management that had been developed for the border region (Pinto and Martins, 2013).
The institutional base for national level transnational cooperation on adaptation can be further developed through regional Conventions and Treaties that have established areas of cooperation, which can be naturally expanded to issues of adaptation as seen in the Baltic Sea Region. Such mainstreaming of transnational adaptation is in many cases likely to be more effective than the establishment of new international organisational structures exclusively for adaptation. There are clear links and synergies between, for example, the transnational management of natural resources or the transnational protection of the environment and considerations of climate change.