Opportunities for advancing climate adaptation in Europe

Climate adaptation must be intensified globally to keep up with increasing climate change impacts. To date, adaptation is mostly driven by climate risks that need to be reduced and little by opportunities. Here, we identify opportunity windows -i.e. favourable conditions for new or upgraded measures- and discuss how they can help to progress adaptation. We find evidence of past, present and future adaptation opportunity windows throughout Europe. Present and past triggers for opportunity windows include the implementation of EU Directives and post-disaster recovery funds and societal support after floods, droughts and wildfires. Future opportunities relate to aging dams and storm surge barriers. Opportunities also emerge from innovations (e.g. through pilots) which could inform transformative adaptation. Decision-makers can operationalize and seize adaptation opportunities through adaptive pathways planning, but would need to anticipate closing windows.