More extreme weather events, health risks and economic uncertainties: Germany must prepare for the consequences of climate change. As decided in the 2021 coalition agreement, the German government therefore wants to develop a precautionary adaptation strategy with measurable targets. A participation process will support the development of targets. The research project will design, organize and evaluate a three-stage participation process for this purpose. The project team will then analyze the results and support the development of targets.
The first participation phase comprises six workshops with stakeholders from the states, municipalities and associations on the clusters of the German adaptation strategy - industry, infrastructures, health, land, regional planning and civil protection, water - as well as a cross-cluster workshop. Participants will discuss targets and associated measures for each cluster. Three to five targets will be proposed for each cluster. In the second phase, the project team will hold stakeholder events and five regional citizens' dialogues at which recommendations will be developed. These will be presented and consolidated in a final event. In the third phase, representatives from the federal states and associations will consult the draft of the precautionary climate adaptation strategy prepared by the federal ministries.
Following each phase of participation, the project team will carry out synthesis work in order to further develop adaptation targets and appropriate measures, as well as to identify conflicting targets. The participation process will be interlinked with the scientific development of suitable indicators to ensure that the monitoring of the German Adaptation Strategy (DAS) can support the review of the targets in the future. In addition, the participation process will be evaluated to determine whether and to what extent participation effectively supports the development of a precautionary climate adaptation strategy of the German government and to continuously improve the process based on the evaluation results. A communication campaign supports the participation process: The public communication is intended to raise awareness and willingness to participate in the dialogues and to inform all participants and the general public about the progress and results of the process.