A new climate adaptation strategy for North Rhine-Westphalia

Extreme weather events such as heatwaves, droughts, heavy rainfall and floods are occurring with increasing frequency and intensity. Their dangerous effects on health, infrastructure and nature require targeted adaptation measures to minimise risk. Climate adaptation is a multifaceted challenge that must be tackled by many different stakeholders in society, including local authorities, healthcare providers, educational institutions, citizens, farmers and forest owners. The state administrations have a special responsibility to support these efforts and create optimal conditions for adaptation.

In order to develop a coherent and effective adaptation strategy, all departments must be actively involved in the strategy process. North Rhine-Westphalia therefore relies on cross-sectoral cooperation and has developed the new NRW Climate Adaptation Strategy in dialogue with experts from all state administrations. The Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Transport commissioned Ramboll to design and implement this dialogue process.

The aim was to bring together the ministries' expertise in various areas of climate adaptation. Strategic goals for climate adaptation were defined and complementary measures developed in discussion-based workshops. The resulting strategy includes both ongoing funding programmes and targeted advisory services as well as newly developed adaptation measures. It therefore reflects the entire spectrum of the state government's strategic actions.

One particular challenge was the short period of four months available for developing the strategy. Targeted project management and clear and sustained communication with all those involved enabled the strategy to be finalised on time. This saved valuable resources in all departments and actively involved the stakeholders throughout the entire process.

As a result of the intensive process, the strategy was approved by the Cabinet of Ministers and will serve as a guideline for administrative work on climate adaptation over the next five years. To facilitate the implementation phase, our consultants developed a two-pillar monitoring system. This system consists of user-friendly implementation monitoring, which monitors the status of all 110 strategic adaptation measures, and a reliable long-term procedure for managing strategy implementation by an interdepartmental working group. The departments benefited from the experience of the strategy process, which established a culture of transparency and mutual support. This will also help to drive the strategy forward in the implementation phase.

With the adoption of the new climate adaptation strategy, North Rhine-Westphalia has taken a decisive step towards sustainably strengthening its climate resilience. The strategy lays the foundation for sustainable development that guarantees the quality of life of the population, the protection of the environment and the stability of the economy even in times of increasing weather extremes.

If you would like to find out more about how we can support you with your climate adaptation strategy, please contact our experts.

You can find the full climate adaptation strategy here.