Climate change mitigation and adaptation: policies, plans and actions in South East Europe countries

Climate change adaptation and mitigation are two complementary features that should be tackled comprehensively exploiting their interrelationships and synergies to reduce climate change risk and its impacts on natural and human systems and regions. In last decades climate change challenge became a priority for EU policy [1] that promulgated an exhaustive legislation to be taken in by national and local governments in suited plans aimed at enhancing ecosystems' resilience and improving energy systems performances. In particular, the "EU Energy roadmap 2050" [2] set tight greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets (- 80-95% by 2050 respect to 1990 levels) to be achieved by developed countries as a group whereas the "Strategy on Adaptation to Climate Change" [3] provides comprehensive guidelines to develop, implement and review adaptation strategies, identifying barriers to the uptake of suitable strategies at national level. This study, carried out in the framework of the ongoing South East Europe "OrientGate project" [4], concerns the collection and critical review of the existing policy framework as well as mitigation and adaptation strategies, measures and plans in the 13 partners' countries (Albania, Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia, The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Ukraine). The overall aim is to characterise the mitigation and adaptation policy background coordinating climate change adaptation efforts in SEE countries and identifying transferable best practices among partners as well as to strengthen the relationship among regions with different features and needs to boost the transfer of knowledge.