Climate change adaptation policy: Issues in Latvia

Abstract

Nowadays the tackling climate change is the greatest sustainability and environmental challenge for the world. The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) as the political forum, particularly the Paris meeting held in 2015, agreed the international actions on climate change. Climate change has already become significant in Europe, with the mean temperature increasing, and extreme weather events becoming more frequent. Europe (i.e. Latvia) is warming faster than many other parts of the world. The importance of adaptation in climate policy is now widely recognized. The transformation in policy has accelerated, especially since the European Climate Change Adaptation Strategy was adopted in April 2013. The main objective of the European Union (EU) Climate Change Adaptation Strategy is to promote adaptation in key vulnerable sectors (e.g., agriculture, fishery etc.). In the light of these climate impacts and vulnerabilities, adaptation measures need to be taken at the level of the EU as well as at national, regional and local levels. On the EU level it is stressed that integration of both climates concerns mitigation and adaptation into other development strategies and policies, as well as cross-sectoral planning instruments, is the most effective way tackling climate change. The principal materials used for the research are as follows: different sources of literature, legislative and programming documents (i.e. guidelines) of international (i.e. UN, OECD) and EU institutions, as well as Latvia's documents. Findings show that the climate change adaptation policies are being adopted by most of the EU countries, but several of them, including Latvia, have lagged for others. Moreover, the development and implementation of an integrated approach could require close collaboration among different stakeholders, for example, governmental institutions, municipalities, non-governmental institutions, the private sector and society.