Climate change adaptation in municipalities: raising awareness and building capacities for action in Austria

First climate change impacts can be observed in Austrian municipalities and thus, adaptation in areas where the responsibility rest with them (e.g. infrastructure such as water, community development planning, tourism, civil protection) become a key challenge. Nevertheless, they might not have the experiences and resources (e.g. necessary information, personal resources to start with the issue from scratch) at hand to tackle these climate related problems in short, medium and long term and to set specific adaptation actions within their authorities. Therefore, the key purpose of the project Climate change adaptation in Austrian municipalities: awareness raising and capacity building for action (CC‐ACT) is to develop and test adaptation support tools to foster adaptation in Austrian municipalities which are or will face climate change related problems. To enhance the impact of the project, the intended main target group of the adaptation support tools are “multipliers” who have long‐standing experiences in the work with local authorities and can use established networks (e.g. regional managers, Klimabündnis managers, Leader manager, Klima‐ und Energiemodellregion manager). The target group will transdisciplinarily be involved in the development process of the adaptation support tools. To build capacities within the group of multipliers and enable them to work with municipalities on adaptation (e.g. initiating the process, identifying impacts, developing adaptation options, supporting implementation and monitoring), we will develop a training concept (following the “train the trainer” approach) and carry out trainings with a number of multipliers. Furthermore, to ensure the usefulness of these adaptation tools in order to have a real impact in supporting adaptation at the municipality level, we will jointly work with multipliers and practically test the tools in 2‐3 Austrian municipalities. The lessons learned from practical testing will be used to revise and improve the adaptation support tools as well as the training concept. The adaptation support tools as well as the training concept will be made available in the internet and thus, can be used by other multipliers as well as interested municipalities. Work Packages