Europe is experiencing wide-ranging weather extremes as a result of climate change. Adapting to current and future climate conditions requires significant investment. Designing adaptation investment projects is complex, as the impacts of climate change and viable adaptation options vary across regions, sectors and socio-economic conditions. Investments in adaptation face many barriers, including market failures, uncertainty of revenue streams, information asymmetries and exposure to unfamiliar risks. Integrating climate change adaptation at an early planning stage is likely to be more cost effective than adaptation of existing infrastructure.
What is ADAPT?
The Climate Adaptation Investment Advisory Platform (ADAPT) is a new initiative developed as part of the EIB Climate Adaptation Plan, with the aim of directly contributing to the objectives of the EU Adaptation Strategy.
ADAPT is an advisory platform that aims at facilitating the deployment of technical and financial expertise to address specific investment and market needs and to accelerating the financing of climate adaptation investments that have the potential to strengthen the resilience of cities, infrastructure networks, coastal areas, river basins, food systems, forests and ecosystems and other activities vulnerable to climate change.
What does ADAPT offer?
ADAPT builds upon the complementary resources of joint EIB and EU advisory initiatives. It offers advisory services, capacity building and knowledge transfer throughout all stages of the project cycle in line with the policy goals of the InvestEU programme and JASPERS. Each ADAPT advisory assignment will be tailored to the specific needs of the project promoter and may include the following:
ADAPT provides knowledge and expertise in adaptation through specialised EIB staff who may be supported by external consultants. It does not provide grant funding or loans, but may facilitate access to such funding from other sources. Support from ADAPT will not guarantee the approval of such funding from other sources.
Who can benefit from ADAPT?
All public and private project promoters including, but not limited to:
- Public authorities: cities, local authorities, regional administrations, managing authorities responsible for EU funds
- Corporates and public-sector entities: energy network operators, power producers, public transport agencies, port authorities, hospital operators, agricultural enterprises, water utilities
- Financial institutions: commercial banks, national promotional institutions, insurance companies, fund managers
How to contact us?
All interested project promoters can contact us on ADAPT@eib.org. Each advisory request will subsequently be assessed on a case-by-case basis. Existing EIB Group clients can also directly approach their respective EIB counterparts to enquire about ADAPT. JASPERS beneficiaries can also access ADAPT in the context of their Country Work Program discussions and through the normal means of identification of new assignments.
When contacting us, please tell us more about your organisation, your investment project and the climate adaptation context of the project. If possible, please indicate the specific climate-related hazards you want to address with your project (e.g. flooding, water scarcity, droughts, sea level rise, heat waves, storms or forest fires just to name a few).
Public sector promoters can receive advisory services at no cost. Private sector promoters may be asked for a financial contribution towards the cost of the advisory services, this will be agreed on a case-by-case basis.
Guiding principles
As a new initiative, ADAPT will initially focus on high-impact advisory assignments that address key adaptation barriers and market failures. ADAPT will prioritise advisory requests presenting a strong justification and added-value for technical and financial expertise.
The following preliminary guiding principles will help prioritise adaptation advisory requests under ADAPT: