First Baltadapt Policy Forum

24 April 2012, Berlin, Germany

At the “Baltic Sea Day”, 24 April 2012 in Berlin, Germany, the Council of the Baltic Sea States, CBSS, in close cooperation with the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety organized a high level Policy Forum as kick-off event for the working process on a proposal for a macro-regional climate change adaptation strategy.
Participants of this Policy Forum were high level policy makers and representatives from relevant national ministries, the European Commission, international and regional organizations and academic institutions in the field of climate change and adaptation from across the Baltic Sea Region.
The objective of the first Policy Forum was to kick-off the working process on the development of a proposal for a macro-regional climate change adaptation strategy as called for in the EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region, EUSBSR.

Following the introductory plenum session, working sessions on the following questions were held:

• How should the strategy be shaped in order to fulfil the needs of the different target groups? (structure-wise and content-wise)
• What transnational challenges does a macro-regional climate change adaptation strategy need to address?
• Where can we link cooperation concerning adaptation to already existing processes and where do we need new process? How can we improve transnational cooperation in a meaningful way?
• How can we ensure coherent action across the region in the work on climate change and adaptation, avoiding overlaps of responsibilities while at the same time ensuring high level political commitment in the region-wide work on the issue from the transnational to the local level?
• What do policy makers expect from a macro-regional adaptation strategy?

The findings of the working sessions will feed into the report on the 1^st Policy Forum and the further development of a proposal to a macro-regional climate change adaptation strategy.
They will further guide the BaltAdapt project in its project implementation work and inform the 2^nd Policy Forum in December 2012.