Europe

The impacts of climate change in Europe require an integration of adaptation and mitigation activities to support climate-neutral and risk-adjusted development. To this end, RD2 projects assess the risks and costs of climate change impacts and explore decarbonisation pathways and management scenarios for natural resource systems such as viticulture or forests on the continent across national borders.

Our Work in the Region

Assessing the risk of catastrophes and climate extremes is highly intertwined with estimating the direct and indirect costs of climate impacts. To bridge gaps between single sectors and nations on the way to a climate smart transformation, integrating adaptation and mitigation measures into robust solutions for planning and decision-making is needed. Trade-offs and synergies between different measures need to be discussed by all stakeholders.

In addition to manage these socio-economic transformation, natural systems need to be managed in a sustainable manner under climatic change. Resilient forest ecosystems set the foundation for sustainable forest products e.g. for building with engineered timber and maintaining key forests functions and services such as natural carbon sinks. Likewise, viticulture practices will change in the face of climate change and modelling different management scenarios will help informed decision-making.


Selected Ongoing Project

  • DIALOGUES Inclusive DIALOGUES towards an operational concept of energy citizenship to support the Energy Union; funded by EU H2020; 01.05.2021-30.04.2024; contact: Fritz Reusseig
  • DIRECTED Disaster Risk Reduction; funded by EU HEU; 01.10.2022-30.09.2026; contact: Fred Hattermann, Tobias Conradt
  • EUCityCalc European City Calculator tool to support cities in planning towards climate neutrality with prospective modelling; funded by EU H2020; 01.09.2021-31.08.2024; contact: Luís Costa
  • GreenPlantFood Green technology for plant-based food; funded by Norwegian Research Council; 01.01.2021-31.12.2024; contact: Benjamin Bodirsky
  • LegumES Valorizing and balancing the ecosystem service benefits offered by legumes,
    and legume-based cropped systems; funded by EU HEU; 01.01.2024-31.12.2027; contact: Benjamin Bodirsky
  • LOCALISED decarbonisation pathways for citizens, local administrations and businesses to inform and support mitigation and adaptation action; funded by EU H2020; 01.10.2021-30.09.2025; contact: Jürgen Kropp
  • MonteVitis Integrating a comprehensive European approach for climate change mitigation and adaptation in Montenegro viticulture; funded by EU HEU; 01.01.2023-31.12.2025; contact: Christoph Menz
  • OrganicYieldsUP Improving yields in organic cropping systems; funded by EU HEU; 01.02.2024-31.01.2028; contact: Susanne Rolinski
  • Re-Livestock Facilitating Innovations for Resilient Livestock Farming Systems; funded by EU HEU; 01.09.2022-31.08.2027; contact: Susanne Rolinski
  • TransformAr Accelerating and upscaling transformational adaptation in Europe: demonstration of water-related innovation packages; funded by EU H2020 ; 01.10.2021-30.09.2025; contact: Fred Hattermann


Selected Finished Projects

  • CASCADES-RD2 Cascading Climate risks: towards Adaptive and resilient European Societies; funded by EU H2020; 01.09.2019- 31.12.2023; contact: Christopher Reyer
  • CROSSDRO Cross-sectoral impact assessment of droughts in complex European basins; Verbundprojekt AXIS: Sektorübergreifende Wirkungsanalyse von Trockenperioden in komplexen europäischen Flusseinzugsgebieten; funded by BMBF PT DLR; 01.09.2019-31.03.2023; contact: T. Contradt
  • CURE Copernicus for Urban Resilience in Europe; funded by EU H2020; 01.01.2020-30.04.2023; contact: Jürgen Kropp
  • MAPPY Multisectoral analysis of climate and land use change impacts on pollinators, plant diversity and crops yields; funded by BMBF PT DLR; 01.09.2019-30.06.2023; contact: Christoph Müller


Involved Working Groups (alphabetical order)