Are EU regions ready to tackle climate change?

This paper provides quantitative evidence on the geography of regional readiness to tackle climate change using data from France, Germany, Italy, Poland, and Spain. Using regression analysis, we assess the relationship between such directionality and the degree of risk of disasters (coastal floods, river floods, and landslides) they face in the short, medium, and long-term as a result of climate change effects.

Results shows that readiness to tackle climate change is driven by the combination of factors: regions at higher risks, more research and development (R&D) intensity and more skilled human capital are more ‘ready’ to engage with this societal challenge. This outcome affirms, firstly, the existence of interregional dissimilarities in the adoption of a mission-oriented approach to combat climate change, and secondly, the collective mobilization of European Union (EU) territories in response to the climate crisis.