Methodological approach

This report is primarily based on findings from a self-assessment survey on adaptation policy processes originally sent by the EEA to authorities responsible for coordinating adaptation at national level of its 32 member countries in May 2013 (and to Croatia in July 2013 as new EU member state and EEA member country). One coordinated response per country was requested. Specifically, authorities responsible for adaptation at national level were contacted (i.e. members of the former European Commission Adaptation Steering Group and the EEA’s National Focal Points (NFPs)/National Reference Centers (NRCs)) with an invitation to coordinate nationally their response to the self-assessment survey. They were explicitly encouraged to involve all relevant stakeholders (e.g. all levels of government, Environment Protection Agencies (EPAs), researchers, associations, and non-governmental organisations (NGOs)) in completing the self-assessment survey in order to ensure that the experiences and views of all were taken into account.

The self-assessment survey was set up as an online questionnaire with 44 questions (see details in Annex 1). The main areas addressed included the following: the adaptation policy process; level of adaptation and policy instruments in sectors; involvement of stakeholders; next steps for the future. By April 2014, 30 countries^[1] had sent their responses to the self-assessment survey^[2] (Figure 1.2) and the resulting set of information formed the basis for the report.

Figure 1.2. 30 European countries sent their responses to the self-assessment survey

The main findings stemming from the self-assessment survey are presented under eight Key Topics. The choice of the Key Topics followed three main criteria: (1) to be informative and succinct. To communicate the results of the self-assessment survey in an effective way, these have been clustered and presented under a number of overarching headings; (2) to be useful to policy-makers and practitioners, the Key Topics had to match their interests in relation to the main steps of the policy-making process. Therefore the sequence of Key Topics follows broadly a policy-cycle framework, from formulation and framing of policies to planning, implementation, and monitoring; and (3) for ease of reading and to facilitate the comprehension of important findings, the Key Topics had to be in themselves distinct with limited overlaps, whilst linking together and jointly providing a basis for future adaptation actions. Discussion rounds among the writing team and authors of this report were held to come to the final selection of Key Topics.

Through a series of technical and writing workshops of the writing team, a draft report was produced and made available to countries for commenting in February 2014. Additional direct contacts with countries took place when issues needed to be further clarified. A revised draft of the report was provided for EIONET consultation in June 2014.

This report and its findings have a number of caveats. While responses from countries have been submitted by national bodies coordinating adaptation activities (primarily by ministries for the environment), the four-month time schedule of the self-assessment survey was not necessarily sufficient for an in-depth and extended consultation with all stakeholders. Specifically, it might not have been possible to consult the sub-national administrative levels and to provide a coordinated response that reflects the view of all levels of government.

As the self-assessment survey was sent to bodies responsible for coordinating adaptation activities at national level the results are likely to most clearly reflect the views of the department that was responsible for providing the national coordinated response.

The technical details of the survey may also have affected the results. Thus the terms used in the self-assessment survey, although supported by a glossary, may have been interpreted in different ways by the respondents as the use of terms is not systematically standardized across Europe.

In addition, most of the questions of the self-assessment survey were designed as closed questions (including multiple-choice options), which were used in the survey to restrict the time needed to respond and to facilitate the analysis of results. This may have, however, prevented some countries from providing more nuanced answers although there were also a series of open-ended questions that provided countries with opportunities to elaborate information and details.

Finally the time it took to carry out the survey and process the results may also have created some imprecisions as adaptation is in a stage of rapid development in many European countries.

Despite these limitations, the report provides the results of what is the largest and most comprehensive assessment and dataset of adaptation policy in Europe to date.

[1] Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Liechtenstein, Malta, The Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, and the United Kingdom.

[2] The responses of countries to the self-assessment survey are publicly available and can be accessed at X.