Multidimensional assessment of European agricultural sector adaptation to climate change

Abstract

been placed on how to mitigate the negative effects of climate change across the sector, causing it to fall behind in terms of adaptation. Although adaptation is now part of the sector’s development agenda, sectoral adaptation performance across member states remains low. In order to justify an accelerated adaptation process across the sector, the paper develops a Relative Climate Change Adaption Index (RCCAI) for the sector based on Eurostat data. The analysis shows that there is no single member state across the EU whose agricultural sector can be considered as fully climate-adapted (resilient), and thus validates the hypothesis that adaption efforts must be stepped up across the sector. To ensure continued sectoral adaptive capacity improvement, the paper recommends coherent integration and accelerated implementation of adaptation practices and policies alongside the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) for the sake of both private and public interests.