ACACIA

A CONCERTED ACTION TOWARDS A COMPREHENSIVE IMPACTS AND ADAPTATIONS ASSESSMENT

principal investigator :Professor M.L. Parry

The project has three specific objectives:

1. To formulate design specifications for an in-depth assessment of the potential effects of climate change in the EU and of the array of adaptive responses.



2. To produce an interim assessment of the state of current knowledge of the likely impacts and potential adaptations with respect to climate change in the EU, and identify gaps in knowledge. So far several national studies have been conducted, no EU-wide assessment has been conducted. The following table identifies the national studies already conducted.




Published Official National Impact Assessments
Country	Title
Finland	Ilmastonmuutos ja Suomi (Climate Change and Finland), Kuusisto,E., Kaupp, L. and Heikinheimo, P. (1996) (eds.) Helsinki University Press, 265pp.
Ireland	Climate Change Studies on the Implications for Ireland. McWilliams, B.E. Stationery Office, Dublin 1993.
Netherlands	Systeemverkenning Gevolgen van KlimaatveranderingP.J.A. Baan, H. van der Most, G.B.M. Pedroli and H.J.van Zuijlen (1993), Waterloopkundig Laboratorium, Delft.
United Kingdom	Review of potential effects of climate change in the United Kingdom.Department of the Environment (1996)HMSO, London, 247pp.
France	A national assessment is currently being planned.
Germany	An assessment has been completed for Brandenburg, but not nationally.




3. To make recommendations concerning the concrete steps needed to achieve the in-depth assessment.

The most important elements in such a new assessment will be:

• a common, internally consistent set of climatic technological, economic and social scenarios of future change;
• a harmonised set of research methodologies;
• an accepted means of upscaling from sub-regional and regional levels to the continental (EU) scale;
• analysis of the important between-sector interactions and their 'downstream' effects;
• analysis of the integrated effect on levels of economic activity in the EU and the implications for EU regional, economic and environmental policies.

This concerted action, for a relatively small amount of input, will be able to bring to bear much larger resources on the issue (in the ratio of about 30: 1 ECU of project costs) to a total value of about 12 million ECUs.

contact :

Matthew Livermore
Jackson Enviroment Institue
University College London
5 gower Street
London WC1E 6HA
United Kingdom
Tel: +44 (0)171 692 5771
Fax: +44 (0)171 813 5283
mtjl.jei@ucl.ac.uk

web site :