Cluster Civil protection

The picture shows emergency workers stacking sandbags.Click to enlarge
Civil protection
Source: Photograph: © Christian Schwier / stock.adobe.com

2019 Monitoring Report on the German Strategy for Adaptation to Climate Change

Table of Contents

 

Civil protection

Coping with heavy rain and storms but also flooding events or periods of hot weather is a core remit of civil protection. The impacts of climate change give rise to new challenges for disaster risk reduction and disaster management to which civil protection will have to be adapted. Most notably, challenges arise from the expected increase in frequency and intensity of extreme weather conditions, weather patterns and associated consequences.

Civil protection must be able to fulfil its tasks reliably even under changing circumstances. Part of this is the protection of the lives and health of citizens and the prevention of material damage in disaster events and major emergencies. Besides, it is part of civil protection’s core objectives to safeguard the availability of services such as energy and water supply, transport and haulage as well as telecommunications and information technologies (KRITIS/critical infrastructures). In this context, prevention is often the best form of protection and this has to be provided by both, the competent authorities and private individuals.

In enhancing civil protection, organisations active in this area will increasingly have to adapt their material, personnel and infrastructure resources to extreme weather events and associated consequences. Furthermore, it may be necessary to adapt areas of responsibility such as training and further education, the co-ordination or organisation of operations or the optimisation of warning and communication channels. Last not least, the importance of informing the public and raising public awareness as well as practising behavioural responses in case of real-life emergencies cannot be underestimated, because numerous protective measures and types of assistance will have to be taken by individual citizens themselves.

 

Effects of climate change

Carrying on to exhaustion? (BS-I-1)

 

Adaptations

Information and knowledge – building blocks for self-help (BS-R-1)

Personal provision for emergency situations (BS-R-2)

Exercises – training for a real-life emergency (BS-R-3)

Are we running out of human resources? (BS-R-4)