While climate adaptation plans across European cities are improving, a lack of funding and staff shortages still deter municipalities from investing in climate mitigation and adaptation measures, a European Investment Bank (EIB) survey found.
While climate adaptation in urban settings has improved in the last decades, a number of issues remain when implementing climate investment plans.
“A lack of funding continues to pose a significant deterrent for municipalities when it comes to planning investment, alongside lengthy and uncertain regulatory processes,” the survey published in July 2023 notes, adding that a shortage of skilled workers is also a big issue.
The survey, conducted on 744 municipalities in the EU, found that 80% of local governments reported a lack of funding and complex regulatory processes hinder their investments.
“Municipalities across Europe face significant investment gaps, particularly in climate change mitigation and adaptation infrastructure,” said Debora Revoltella, EIB chief economist.
In particular, cities in less developed regions – regions with a lower income – face more hurdles in implementing climate risk mitigation measures. While 52% of municipalities in more developed and high-income regions have already built new infrastructure to avoid or reduce exposure to climate risks, the same applies to only a third of municipalities in lower and middle-income regions.
Overall, the EIB survey found that most European municipalities consider their investments in climate mitigation and adaptation infrastructure in the last three years as insufficient and plan to boost their investments in the coming years, particularly through the use of EU funds.
At the same time, many local authorities report difficulties in using EU funds on the ground.
“It is a big question for many municipalities […] how to accumulate enough resources to make the transition actually happen,” said the deputy mayor of Tallinn, Vladimir Svet, adding that while there are many EU funds earmarked for the green transition, “they are usually very narrowly focused and they do not allow a holistic approach in fulfilling the goals that we have.”
Medium-sized cities are also struggling to use EU funds on the ground as they cannot always apply for funding programmes.
“There are a lot of EU funds, but it takes a lot of manpower to get the funding and there is a shortage of manpower in some administrations,” Simone Lammert, from the city of Solingen, representative of Eurotowns, said during the Cities Forum in Turin earlier this year.
The shortage of staff concerns other positions as well, as municipalities struggle to secure the staff they need to implement investment programmes at the local level.
According to the EIB survey, 69% of municipalities reported suffering from a lack of experts with environmental and climate assessment skills and staff with technical and engineering expertise, which risk compromising climate mitigation and adaptation measures at the local level.
According to Revoltella, addressing the persistent lack of skills at local level is critical “to enable the adequate implementation of regional and pan-European investment programmes.”
The shortage of skilled workers at local level already affected the design and implementation of projects to decarbonise buildings, which are part of the EU’s efforts to advance the bloc’s green transition.
The EU’s ambition to become carbon neutral by 2050 requires an enormous number of skilled workers, such as technicians and engineers that the bloc is currently lacking.
To address this issue, the EU Commission is currently working to attract more skilled workers from third countries, facilitating visa applications and the recognition of foreign qualifications.
[Edited by Alice Taylor]
