Climate Resilience in Odesa Region: From Risk Assessment to Adaptation Priorities

A new study enti­tled “Cli­mate Resilience in Ode­sa Region: Risks, Vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty and Adap­ta­tion” has been pub­lished. It was pre­pared by experts from the State Insti­tu­tion “Insti­tute for Eco­nom­ics and Fore­cast­ing of the Nation­al Acad­e­my of Sci­ences of Ukraine” with­in the frame­work of the project, “Sup­port­ing Ukraine in Imple­ment­ing the Paris Agree­ment and Adapt­ing to Cli­mate Change Impacts in the Black Sea Region (PAABS)”.

Ode­sa Region is one of the most water-scarce regions in Ukraine, mak­ing it par­tic­u­lar­ly vul­ner­a­ble to cli­mate change. Droughts, extreme heat, chang­ing pre­cip­i­ta­tion pat­terns and an increased risk of wild­fires are putting addi­tion­al pres­sure on water resources, nat­ur­al ecosys­tems, eco­nom­ic activ­i­ties and crit­i­cal infra­struc­ture. The con­se­quences of Russia’s full-scale war fur­ther exac­er­bate these vul­ner­a­bil­i­ties.

The study presents the find­ings of a gen­der-sen­si­tive assess­ment of cli­mate risks and vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty in Ode­sa Region. It exam­ines key cli­mate trends and pro­ject­ed threats, while iden­ti­fy­ing how social, eco­nom­ic, gen­der-relat­ed and infra­struc­ture fac­tors affect the vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty of the pop­u­la­tion and local com­mu­ni­ties.

Par­tic­u­lar atten­tion is giv­en to the impacts of cli­mate change on key sec­tors in the region, includ­ing water resources, agri­cul­ture, ener­gy, trans­port, nat­ur­al ecosys­tems and pub­lic health.

From risk assess­ment to prac­ti­cal solu­tions

One of the key out­comes of the study is the iden­ti­fi­ca­tion of 10 pri­or­i­ty actions that could be imple­ment­ed over the next 3–5 years to sup­port a sys­tem­at­ic approach to cli­mate change adap­ta­tion in Ode­sa Region.

These pri­or­i­ties include plan­ning adap­ta­tion mea­sures, pro­tect­ing the pop­u­la­tion and ensur­ing the con­ti­nu­ity of essen­tial ser­vices, strength­en­ing water secu­ri­ty, restor­ing nat­ur­al ecosys­tems, improv­ing the resilience of infra­struc­ture and eco­nom­ic activ­i­ties, pro­mot­ing pub­lic engage­ment and mon­i­tor­ing progress.

The assess­ment can pro­vide an impor­tant ana­lyt­i­cal basis for devel­op­ing the Ode­sa Region Cli­mate Change Adap­ta­tion Strat­e­gy. It can also help ensure that cli­mate risks are tak­en into account in plan­ning Ukraine’s post-war recov­ery and the region’s future devel­op­ment.

Read the full study here.

The State Insti­tu­tion “Insti­tute for Eco­nom­ics and Fore­cast­ing of the Nation­al Acad­e­my of Sci­ences of Ukraine” is a mem­ber of the PAABS con­sor­tium. PAABS is fund­ed by the Fed­er­al Min­istry for the Envi­ron­ment, Cli­mate Action, Nature Con­ser­va­tion and  Nuclear Safe­ty (BMUKN) under the Inter­na­tion­al Cli­mate Ini­tia­tive (IKI), the project is sup­port­ed and coor­di­nat­ed by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Inter­na­tionale Zusam­me­nar­beit (GIZ) GmbH. PAABS stands for “Sup­port to Ukraine in the Imple­men­ta­tion of the Paris Agree­ment and Adap­ta­tion to Cli­mate Change Impacts in the Black Sea Region”.