European Conference on Climate Change Adaptation - ECCA

ECCA is one of the largest conferences on climate change adaptation and has been held every two years in Europe since 2013. It brings together interested parties from science, politics and various practical partners, including stakeholders, non-governmental organisations and decision-makers, to promote adaptation to climate change at the global and local level. The conferences present fundamental new research findings as well as implementation experiences from adaptation projects. The ECCA conferences are hosted by the European Commission and selected EU-funded research projects.

European Conference on Climate Adaptation – since 2013

The first conference "European Conference on Climate Change Adaptation – ECCA" took place in Hamburg, Germany, in March 2013. It was significantly co-financed by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), among others. With over 700 participants, it underlined the need for exchange between science and practice, particularly in the area of adaptation to climate change.

The BMBF was also involved in the second European conference on adaptation to climate change in Copenhagen in 2015. On behalf of the BMBF, the DLR Project Management Agency designed and organised a session on "Local community and citizen knowledge – how can it steam up the adaptation process and move science-practice-interaction to a new quality?" Especially through the exchange with and the inclusion of partners from low-income countries, valuable impulses for future adaptation research – also in the context of global responsibility – were set.

The strong need for exchange formats between actors from science and practice who implement findings also manifested itself in the follow-up conferences. In 2019, the DLR Project Management Agency, on behalf of the BMBF, moderated a science practice session on the urgent user questions of how data and offers from climate research can become more relevant for municipal decision-makers.

Other topics of the ECCA conferences included young people's perspectives on climate change, the role of business and finance in mobilising investment in adaptation and building carbon neutral and climate resilient economies, and nature-based approaches to resilience, mitigation and sustainable development.