Editorial: New approaches to local climate change risk analysis

The overall objective of the UNCHAIN project was to improve climate change risk assessment frameworks aimed at informed decision-making and adaptation action. The research approach was based on the existing concepts of Impact Chain and insights from practices on the co-production of knowledge.

The UNCHAIN cases highlight five research innovations:

1. Societal transformation: testing approaches to capture both short and long-term climate change risk and adaptation;
2. Co-production: integrating participatory methods into impact modeling and adaptation assessment;
3. Incorporating societal trends into scenario analysis: accounting for socioeconomic developments as well as climate projections in addressing societal vulnerabilities and adaptation options;
4. Addressing uncertainties: combining qualitative and quantitative methods of impact assessment to test the Impact Chains approach;
5. Transboundary climate risks: Expanding the logic of the impact chains approach to encompass transboundary climate risks and to link adaptation and mitigation response.

The insights garnered from the UNCHAIN project offer a solid foundation for proposing the broad implementation and ongoing refinement of the Impact Chain-based approach. This approach aims to streamline existing climate risk assessment strategies across EU member states, various levels of governance, and sectors. Furthermore, it seeks to enhance cross-border collaboration and the sharing of knowledge.

By adopting this approach, Europe can speed up the process of achieving more effective adaptation. It achieves this by enhancing comparability between countries and regions, facilitating the transfer of knowledge and best practices, reducing ambiguity related to terminology and methodology, and fostering knowledge exchange and collaborative learning.