Horizontal Action (HA) Climate was one of the four Horizontal Actions in the EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region. HA Climate represented Baltic Sea cooperation in the fields of climate adaptation as well as low emission development. The HA was led by the Baltic 2030 Unit of the Council of the Baltic Sea States – CBSS until the 31.12.2020 when renewed Action Plan of the EUSBSR became valid. In new Action Plan, climate is mainstreamed into 14 Policy Areas and all coordinators of the Policy Areas are themselves responsible for implementing EUSBSR climate goals and are implementing their sector relevant climate actions. CBSS will continue to facilitate BSR Climate Policy Dialogue with engagement of pan-Baltic Stakeholders interested in carbon neutral and resilient Baltic Sea Region.
Human influence on the climate system is proven and recent climate changes have had widespread impacts on human and natural systems on all continents and across the oceans. Future climate scenarios show increasing annual and seasonal temperatures of about 3 – 4 degrees by the end of this century for the Baltic Sea region (BSR), a projected warming that is higher than the global mean. The Baltic Sea region is highly industrialized and populated – around 85 million people live in the Baltic Sea catchment area. That makes the BSR highly vulnerable to climate change. Furthermore socio-economic impacts are foreseen to be considerable with various degrees of resilience among regions and sectors. All BSR countries are therefore concerned by vulnerability to a changing climate. However, awareness and preparedness to climate change differ across the Baltic Sea region. While effective mitigation action is crucial, adaptation has to be the other aspect of comprehensive climate work, on all levels of governance.