Environmental Essay no.29 – Adapting to the Climate of the Future

Adapting to the Climate of the Future

Be prepared for climate change

Climate change – what has that got to do with my line of work? This is probably a question most people will ask, when they are told to start adapting – in their daily work – to the changes in the climate which are on their way – and which will also affect Denmark.

Nevertheless – this is exactly what this leaflet tells you to do.

Although there is much uncertainty about the development of the climate and the contribution of human activities to the greenhouse effect, the time has come – according to the recommendations of scientists and other experts – to integrate climate change into the long-term decisions we take in a number of areas.

Previously the Danish Ministry of the Environment was focusing only on the need to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases in order to control the increasing greenhouse effect and the resulting climate change as far as possible. With this leaflet the Ministry wishes to point out that we also have to focus on measures to adapt to the climate change. Adaptation to and prevention of climate change are not a question of either one or the other – but rather of both.

The leaflet is the Ministry of the Environment's follow-up to the report "Effects of climate change – adaptation in Denmark" published (in Danish: Effekter af klimaændringer – tilpasninger I Danmark") by the Academy of Technical Sciences in September 2003, and the Danish Board of Technology report "New Climate – New Life?" (in Danish: "Nyt klima – nyt liv?") from June 2004. Efforts are required, because – in some areas – hesitation to include available knowledge on climate change in our daily work may prove very expensive for society.

This leaflet does not give ready-to-use answers, but intends to invite decisionmakers, business and authorities in Denmark to assess how possible climate changes can be integrated in new projects and in current planning and maintenance activities. Not as a requirement, but as inspiration for considerations at local level on how best to take future climate change into account.

In some areas, planners have already been thinking ahead, for instance in the construction of the Copenhagen Metro, in which climate change was taken into account.

In other areas, the problems have hardly been considered.

This leaflet is mainly targeted on the latter, focusing on selected areas which illustrate what kind of problems may be encountered by regional and local authorities, by consultants, contractors and engineers etc., at management as well as staff level. The point is that environmental and economic benefits can be gained if business and authorities are aware of climate change in due time.

The Ministry of the Environment wishes to put adaptation to climate change on the public agenda, and to increase awareness of the time it takes to introduce new ways of thinking and new procedures, to change rules etc. In other words, climate change can already be integrated in the approach we use in our daily work.

"Adaptation to and mitigation of climate change are not a question of either one or the other – but rather of both".