EU water policy "must adapt to climate change"

Environment Daily 1845, 21/03/05

The EU's water framework directive (WFD) has to be made flexible to account for the likely effects of climate change on European waters, according to a report from the European Commission.

The Joint research centre report suggests that ecological reference conditions used in the directive cannot be treated as static.  They must instead be updated to take account of climate change-related factors such as temperature fluctuation, droughts and flooding, or species extinction.

Overall, the report finds that not enough is known about likely effects of climate change on EU waters to do much about them.  It stresses a need for more efforts to develop relevant climate change indicators, economic analyses, regional climate change models and long-term monitoring systems.

The effects of climate variability and extreme weather conditions on both the quality and quantity of EU waters is needed, it continues, as is an evaluation of possible protection measures.

Follow-up: European Commission http://europa.eu.int/comm/index_en.htm, ,

press release http://europa.eu.int/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=MEMO/05/102