Towards the development of climate adaptation knowledge-action systems in the European Union: An institutional approach to climate service analysis

Six years have passed since the European Commission published its Roadmap for Climate Services (2015). Nowadays, this domain is characterized by a complex constellation of different products, services, and actors. Indeed, the definitions of climate services adopted by the WMO and the European Union are very vague, leading to possible mismatches between users’ expectations and producers’ offers in terms of services. Consequently, several authors and institutions have adopted different terminologies. For example, Weichselgartner and Arheimer (2019) argue for “climate adaptation products, climate adaptation services and climate adaptation knowledge-action systems”. Therefore, this article will pursue two goals: first, we will apply new terminologies to climate services across the European Union; secondly, we will investigate the possible correlation between the degree of decentralisation, the policymaking traditions (statist or corporatist), and the emergence of climate adaptation knowledge-action systems in selected countries (EU 27). From our analysis we conclude that climate change adaptation knowledge action systems were most developed in corporatist and/or decentralized countries such as Austria, Denmark, Germany, Ireland, Netherlands, and Spain. At the same time, statist and centralized countries show different degrees of integration of climate products and services in their adaptation governance: some developed adaptation services (France), for others no product or service was found (Greece). We believe that better use of terminology (e.g., product vs service) is an important step for the development of climate services and a sign of increasing maturity in the field.

Abstract licence: CC BY-NC

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