Photo credit: The Ebro Delta, Catalonia, Images from Copernicus Sentinal-2
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SHORT SOLUTION · POLICY & GOVERNANCE
Key information
| Title | Catalonia’s law 16/2017 on Climate Change- Llei 16/2017, de l’1 d’agost, del canvi climàtic |
| Region and Country | Catalonia, Spain |
| Hazard | Cross-Cutting Resilience |
| Action Type | Policy or Regulation, Governance Arrangement |
| Strategy or Guiding Policy | Estratègia Catalana d’Adaptació al Canvi Climàtic 2021-2030, ESCACC30 (Catalan Climate Change Adaptation Strategy 2021-2030). The Law requires the strategy and requires every department to integrate its objectives into sectoral planning. |
| Key links | La Llei del canvi climàtic (The Climate Change Law), Oficina Catalana del Canvi Climàtic |
Action Description
Catalonia’s Law 16/2017 on Climate Change requires all ministries of the Government of Catalonia (Generalitat de Catalunya) to incorporate climate adaptation objectives into their sectoral planning and programming. Each department must integrate the vulnerability reduction objectives of the regional adaptation framework into its sectoral plans and programmes, with the participation of local authorities and other actors. This mandate is one of the central pillars of the Catalan Climate Change Adaptation Strategy 2021-2030 (ESCACC30), the framework the Law requires, and establishes adaptation as a cross-cutting governance principle guiding decisions across water, energy, agriculture, health, infrastructure and urban development.
The Law sets out how the mandate works. The department responsible for climate change prepares the adaptation framework jointly with the other departments and presents it to the Social Climate Change Table (Taula Social del Canvi Climàtic), the Law’s consultative body for social, economic and environmental organisations. The Government approves it on the proposal of the Interdepartmental Commission on Climate Change. Sectoral planning and programming instruments must then take into account observed and projected climate impacts, regional climate projections, viable response measures and a system for monitoring the effects of planning on adaptation. New plans and projects must include an assessment of adaptation to climate change in their environmental impact report.
The Law is operationalised through the ESCACC30, approved by the Government on 17 January 2023. It sets 76 operational objectives deployed through 312 specific measures: 76 for natural systems, 187 for socio-economic sectors and 49 for mountain, inland and coastal territories. Social and territorial vulnerability guide the prioritisation of measures. The objectives and measures were agreed in the Commission’s Adaptation Working Group of 27 staff from the sectoral departments, after a public participation process from autumn 2020 to spring 2021. By embedding adaptation into every policy area, Catalonia strengthens the coherence and accountability of its climate response and makes resilience a shared responsibility across government.
The initiative also establishes an Interdepartmental Commission on Climate Change (Comissió Interdepartamental del Canvi Climàtic), which coordinates implementation and ensures that adaptation goals are reflected in regional planning, investment and regulatory frameworks. The Commission coordinates the departments’ climate action, approves the proposed adaptation framework, monitors and evaluates climate policies and sectoral action plans, reviews the Generalitat’s aid policy against the Law’s objectives and sets spending priorities for the Climate Fund (Fons Climàtic).
Climate risks are systemic, affecting water security, nature, tourism and public health, and require a response at institutional level. By legally requiring integration across all ministries, Catalonia provides a model for institutional resilience, aligning adaptation planning, finance and monitoring across levels of government. The result is an adaptive, anticipatory governance structure able to manage cascading climate risks and build resilience into public policy.
Who in regional government delivers this
The Government of Catalonia owns this action through the department responsible for climate change and its Catalan Office for Climate Change (Oficina Catalana del Canvi Climàtic, OCCC), the Government’s technical body for climate strategies, plans and projects, which prepared the ESCACC30. Each sectoral department delivers the mandate within its own plans and programmes.
Cost / Funding source
The Law regulates the Climate Fund, a public fund attached to the department responsible for climate change that finances mitigation and adaptation, including the adaptation of economic sectors and natural systems. At least 50 per cent of revenue from Catalonia’s tax on carbon dioxide emissions from motor vehicles goes to the Fund. The Interdepartmental Commission sets its spending priorities against available resources, sectoral planning and cost-effectiveness analysis.
Best Practice Principles
Write the adaptation duty into law. A statutory requirement for every government department to integrate the adaptation strategy’s objectives into its sectoral plans makes adaptation a standing duty of each department and connects the strategy directly to sectoral decisions.
Set minimum content for sectoral plans. Requiring every sectoral plan to cover climate impacts, regional projections, viable response measures and a monitoring system gives departments a common standard that a coordinating body can review.
Join coordination, monitoring and funding in one body. Giving one interdepartmental commission responsibility for coordinating departments, evaluating sectoral plans and setting climate fund priorities connects adaptation planning with spending decisions.
Agree objectives with the departments that deliver them. Settling operational objectives and measures with sectoral department staff through a dedicated working group aligns the strategy with each department’s own planning.