Starting Point
Regardless of whether the targets set out in the Paris Agreement are met or not, climate change will increasingly bring with it extreme weather events. Austria already incurs annual damages of around €1 billion (as of 2015)1, even though the public sector spends a further billion per year on adaptation measures (as of 2024)2. This is on top of expenditure from the private sector. The majority of damages are attributable to extreme events — heat, flooding, high water, frost, etc. —
Reducing these costs and protecting people, communities and cities in Austria as effectively as possible requires forward-looking measures and early warning systems to prevent or minimise damages. This doesn't replace well-considered and practised disaster management and developed crisis response plans, but it can make their job considerably easier.
This paper deals exclusively with forward-looking measures to minimise damages caused by extreme weather events.
Challenges
- Austria was quick to develop climate change adaptation strategies through participatory processes, but important steps are still missing to ensure their implementation and to tap the full potential of nationally developed solutions:
- The scale of the challenge is often not yet recognised, even amongst people working in the field
- There is a lack of regional and local analyses as a basis for climate change adaptation
- Insufficient background knowledge amongst planners may potentially lead to maladaptation
- Climate change adaptation is not, or only insufficiently, embedded in structural and legal frameworks
- Funding for adaptation measures is disproportionate to the need and remains too low
- Know-how developed in Austria for the protection of settlements and infrastructure in mountainous areas can be marketed internationally