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From climate change impacts to the development of adaptation strategies: Challenges for agriculture in Europe

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Abstract

This study links climate change impacts to the development of adaptation strategies for agriculture in Europe. Climate change is expected to intensify the existing risks, particularly in southern regions, and create new opportunities in some northern areas. These risks and opportunities are characterised and interpreted across European regions by analysing over 300 highly relevant publications that appeared in the last decade. The result is a synthesis of the reasons for concern for European agricultural regions. The need to respond to these risks and opportunities is addressed by evaluating the costs and benefits of a number of technical and policy actions. The results highlight the importance of enhanced water use efficiency as a critical response to climate risks and the need for a more effective extension service. These results aim to assist stakeholders as they take up the adaptation challenge and develop measures to reduce the vulnerability of the sector to climate change.

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Acknowledgements

We acknowledge the valuable contribution of Jeremy Schlickenrieder of the Universidad Politecnica de Madrid in the preparation of the manuscript. We acknowledge the financial support of the EC JRC (PESETA Project) and the additional support of the DG Agriculture (Adaptation project).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Agricultural Economics and Social Sciences, Universidad Politecnica de Madrid, Madrid, Spain

    Ana Iglesias

  2. Department of Statistics, Economic Structure and International Economic Organisation, Universidad de Alcala, Alcala, Spain

    Sonia Quiroga

  3. Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), Potsdam, Germany

    Marta Moneo

  4. Department of Civil Engineering, Universidad Politecnica de Madrid, Madrid, Spain

    Luis Garrote

  5. Department of Agricultural Economics and Social Sciences Avenida de la Complutense, sn, Universidad Politecnica de Madrid, 28040, Madrid, Spain

    Ana Iglesias

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  1. Ana Iglesias
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  4. Luis Garrote
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Correspondence to Ana Iglesias.

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Iglesias, A., Quiroga, S., Moneo, M. et al. From climate change impacts to the development of adaptation strategies: Challenges for agriculture in Europe. Climatic Change 112, 143–168 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-011-0344-x

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