Ahlert, Gerd

Crawford-Brown, Doug

Hanski, Jyri

Lokers, Rob

Mayer, Mark

Energy sector organisations were interviewed regarding their views and strategies on climate change, the impacts of climate change on their decisions and operations, and especially on climate change adaptation. This study provides important information on the needs of potential users of the climate change adaptation toolset to be developed. The Tool?supported Policy Development for regional Adaptation (ToPDAd) is a research project funded by the European Commission. The objective is to find the best strategies for businesses and regional governments to adapt to the expected short term and long term changes in climate. ToPDAd will deliver state of the-art socioeconomic methods and tools for an integrated assessment, supporting regional adaptation decision making. The project will give policy and decision makers in European regions the tools necessary to make informed decisions on how to adapt to climate change, avoiding maladaptation. It concentrates on tourism, transport and energy sectors from which the energy sector is emphasised in this paper. Gathering information on the needs of stakeholders was identified as an important step when developing tools for climate change adaptation related decision?making. Hence, 15 public and private organisations operating in the energy sector were interviewed regarding their views and strategies on climate change, the impacts of climate change on their decisions and operations, and especially on climate change adaptation. The interviews were recorded and analysed. Organisations interviewed are located in Austria, Finland, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland or in the UK, although some of them have Europe wide activities. Altogether 25 question were posed to the stakeholders covering their current and planned strategies, as well as ideas regarding policy, scientific and tool support. For instance, they were asked about how climate change affects their business currently and in the future and how they monitor climate change. In addition, they were asked about EU- or state level policies or support from the science field that would support energy sector decision making. Finally, the organisations were asked about the characteristics of a decision support tool that would support their adaptation related decision making. Most of the stakeholders viewed climate change as mainly a source of negative consequences, however some found also positive consequences. The stakeholders hoped for more predictability, monetary support to the actors, functioning markets, interdisciplinary research and research on more accurate risk estimates from the EU and state level policies and science field. The decision support tool should, for instance, offer accurate predictions and probabilities of the most important climate change effects regarding the energy sector (both demand and supply), the effectiveness of adaptation strategies to tackle these effects and climate scenarios up to the regional level

Climate change adaptation in the energy sector:An interview study in European companies and public organisations

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