This report evaluates the integration of climate adaptation into the sectoral policy making of the European Commission, particularly following the publication of the European Union Adaptation Strategy. It focuses on integration in key sectors: coasts and marine, agriculture and biodiversity, health and water, with an emphasis on barriers and enablers of integration. It finds that the integration of adaptation into sectoral policy-making is largely dependent on institutional dynamics at the EU-level combined with how member states and wider sectoral stakeholders engage with adaptation concerns. In particular, too many policy objectives at the EU-level of policy-making combined with member states’ ambivalence, has tended to hamper the integration of adaptation goals. In sectors which have had more recent and regular exposure to climate impacts such as agriculture these factors appear to have had less impact on integration as stakeholders may be more aware of some sectoral vulnerabilities.
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