Despite great uncertainties, every country in the world must prepare and implement adaptation plans, both because all the main scientific bodies and international organisations agree that the costs of uncontrolled climate change will be higher and because most of the adaptation actions will have to be financed from public funds. As the European Environment Agency stated in its 2024 European Climate Risk Assessment, the risks of the climate crisis affect the vast majority of public policy areas and should be treated as national security risks and in the same way as insurance companies treat their respective risks.
Therefore, planning for adaptation to the climate crisis should now be included in a country’s main economic and fiscal planning – in the national budget, in the analysis of medium-term economic risks, in the assessment of debt sustainability, etc.
Currently, the Republic of Cyprus is at an advanced stage of reviewing its National Climate Change Adaptation Strategy (NAS), preparing a detailed vulnerability and risk assessment in all sectors of the economy and coming up with a large number of adaptation measures and policies to be implemented in the coming years.
While the NAS identifies almost all of the necessary projects, it is important to attempt to cost them in more detail, as far as possible, and to highlight the benefits of these measures against the damage that is likely to occur if adaptation measures are not implemented. With this in mind, starting from the NAS and taking further into account other government policies and strategic plans as well as results of other studies for Cyprus and/or other Mediterranean countries, the ACCREU project attempted to assess:
– What are the current adaptation investment needs up to 2030/2050
– Which of these investments are ongoing or planned with a specific budget and time plan
– Which part of these investments must be covered by public or private funds
– What are the damages from unmitigated climate change expected for 2050/2100.
Read the full Policy Brief dedicated to this case study published by The Cyprus Institute.