Strategically addressing climate change in the Euskirchen county, Germany

Key Learnings

• Ensure broad support before developing the strategy: Involving relevant stakeholders, including external experts, from the beginning and before a political agreement is made is crucial. In the county Euskirchen, open exchange paved the way for the decision to develop a comprehensive strategy for adaptation.
• Involvement of relevant experts in the process: Stakeholder participation in the development of the strategy for adaptation contributes to exploit synergies with existing projects and initiatives and to avoid duplication of work. Furthermore, it facilitates the implementation of measures due to a higher acceptance.
• Start with the “low-hanging fruit”: The implementation of rather small and “easy” projects in the beginning leads to success stories, that facilitate the implementation of more far reaching measures.

Summary

To address the opportunities, risks, and challenges of climate change, Euskirchen county started a process to develop a comprehensive adaptation strategy. Early exchange with relevant stakeholders paved the way for the political decision to develop a strategy and involving internal experts in the process built on existing projects and initiatives to ensure the later acceptance of the strategy. However, stakeholder consultation could not be carried out to the extent initially planned due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to a lack of commitment to implementing the measures. This highlights the importance of involving relevant experts as well as citizens throughout the entire development process of an adaptation strategy to ensure the implementation and legitimacy of adaptation measures.

Contact

Name: Saskia Gall-Röhrig

Organisation: County Euskirchen

Email: saskia [dot] gall-roehrigkreis-euskirchen [dot] de (saskia[dot]gall-roehrig[at]kreis-euskirchen[dot]de)