1. Ministry of the Environment and Conservation, Agriculture and Consumer Protection of the State of North Rhine- Westphalia Adapting to climate change at the regional level The Example of North Rhine-Westphalia Dr Alexander Schink State Secretary Ministry of the Environment and Conservation, Agriculture and Consumer Protection of the German State of North Rhine-Westphalia

2. Ministry of the Environment and Conservation, Agriculture and Consumer Protection of the State of North Rhine- Westphalia North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) – Some facts and figures  Population: 18.1 million  Germany‘s most densely populated state  „Rhine – Ruhr Metropolitan Region“: > 10 million people live in an area of 10.000 km²  31 % of energy generated in Germany  50 % of the land is used for farming and forestry  Rich biodiversity: 43.000 animal and plant species

3. Ministry of the Environment and Conservation, Agriculture and Consumer Protection of the State of North Rhine- Westphalia Adaptation at the regional level  Regions (German states) play a key role in the field of adaptation:  Nature and extent of climate changes vary considerably at the regional level  Regions are responsible for implementation of laws and regulations in many fields that are affected by climate change  Regions have local authorities with expertise (e.g. in water management, forestry, regional and land use planning)

4. Ministry of the Environment and Conservation, Agriculture and Consumer Protection of the State of North Rhine- Westphalia North Rhine-Westphalia Strategy for Adaptation - Objectives  Published in April 2009  Both sectoral and regional perspective  Objectives:  raising awareness of problems  improving knowledge  offering options for action  initiating measures

5. Ministry of the Environment and Conservation, Agriculture and Consumer Protection of the State of North Rhine- Westphalia North Rhine-Westphalia Strategy for Adaptation - Contents 1.Microclimate projections 2.Climate change impacts in 8 fields for action  agriculture and soil  forests and forestry  biodiversity and nature conservation  water management  tourism  public health  cities and areas of high population density  safety of plants and installations 3.Measures and options for action

6. Ministry of the Environment and Conservation, Agriculture and Consumer Protection of the State of North Rhine- Westphalia North Rhine-Westphalia Strategy for Adaptation - Results  Climate-induced changes in NRW have different impacts:  farming is likely to profit from climate changes  considerable increase in risk of windthrow in forests  moderate to sharp increase in sensibility to heat  Impacts of climate change in NRW likely to be manageable – if adequate adaptation measures are timely implemented

7. Ministry of the Environment and Conservation, Agriculture and Consumer Protection of the State of North Rhine- Westphalia North Rhine-Westphalia Strategy for Adaptation - Measures and projects  Special fund (10 M €) to promote innovative approaches to climate change adaptation  39 projects und measures sponsored by the NRW environment ministry  Examples:  trial cultivation of different tree species  „Urban Climate Manual“  „ActionClimate Plus“

8. Ministry of the Environment and Conservation, Agriculture and Consumer Protection of the State of North Rhine- Westphalia Action Climate plus – NRW Climate Town of the Future  Action Climate plus competition to promote climate protection and adaptation in towns and local government areas  Objective: developing a climate protection and adaptation strategy for two designated NRW Climate Towns  to serve as models  Funding volume: 3.3 million Euro  Projects: expanding the cycling path network, improving the energy efficiency of older buildings, adapting to heavy rainfall events, ….

9. Ministry of the Environment and Conservation, Agriculture and Consumer Protection of the State of North Rhine- Westphalia Interregional Co-operation  Since 2004, NRW has been chairing the working group on climate change of the ENCORE environment network  27 - 29 October 2009: international symposium on „Strategies for Adapting to Climate Change in the Regions of Europe“ in Düsseldorf  Some 100 experts participated in 5 workshops (water, forestry, tourism, urban management, biodiversity)

10. Ministry of the Environment and Conservation, Agriculture and Consumer Protection of the State of North Rhine- Westphalia Conclusions and next steps Conclusions  Regions play a crucial role in developing strategies for adaptation and implementing concrete measures  Many regions, cities, towns and local councils are already actively involved Next steps  Implementation of „no-regret“ measures  Regional, national and Europe-wide exchanges  Integration of the adaptation issue into other policy fields

11. Ministry of the Environment and Conservation, Agriculture and Consumer Protection of the State of North Rhine- Westphalia Thank you very much for your attention Dr Alexander Schink State Secretary Ministry of the Environment and Conservation, Agriculture and Consumer Protection of the German State of North Rhine-Westphalia