With this practice-oriented research project, the Northwest German region is among the selected model regions in Germany that – through the support of “Creating Climate Change-Ready Regions (KLIMZUG)” – has the opportunity to develop improvements in their ability to deal with climate change in selected fields, and to integrate them into regional planning and development processes.

Goals
In nordwest2050 there are two different characters of roadmapping processes for climate adaptation in the Northwest region.
1. It is necessary to define the vulnerability of economic sectors for the food industry, the energy production and distribution, and the port management and logistics, evaluate chances for innovation and implement concrete measures. This activity e.g. is touching resilient food plants, environmentally friendly cooling and air-conditioning technologies as well as the fitness of electricity grid. These so called sector-oriented roadmaps are focusing on innovation paths within the period of nordwest2050 until spring 2014.
2. All partners will develop a long-term roadmap of change for climate adaptation strategies for the whole Metropolitan Region Bremen-Oldenburg Northwest with the time frame of 2050. The roadmap of change is based on the experiences and results of short-term processes in specific innovation paths to define needs for structural changes until 2050.

The generalisability and the transferability of the approach should be assured through close cooperation with the parallel projects in the support programme, as well as with the Center for Integrative Environmental Research (CIER) at the University of Maryland. Parallels in the focus sectors of logistics/port management, the food manufacturing industry and the energy sector, together with the circumstances of the natural surroundings make possible this transatlantic comparison of the two coastal regions. They also serve to provide inspiration for the shaping of future-readiness with regard to climate change in both regions.

Project Structure
The relevance that climate change has for the region and for its economy will be clarified in a first step in nordwest2050 within the framework of a vulnerability analysis. The vulnerability not only within the region itself but also that of the exposed export and logistics site will be taken into account., as the effects of climate change are equally relevant along the entire length of the value added chain. It’s already possible, for example, to assume as a starting point a growing need for cooling in summer, conflicts between food production and biofuel production, and fluctuations in the stability of power supply systems – not least because of the strengthened input from off-shore wind power plants.

In a second step, the abilities of the region to come to terms with the change will be measured. At the core of this interest is the potential for innovation and the ability to mobilise it. Here, we find another distinctive feature of the project methodology: it’s not simply about adaptation to expected occurrences (“What would happen if…?”) but rather about an improvement in the ability to adapt (whatever happens…!”). Not only the ability to adapt to climate change but also the ability of the region to learn and to compete internationally will improve greatly. Together with partners from the respective economic clusters, concrete paths of innovations will be developed and new ground broken. These target not only technical innovations at different stages of development (e.g. solar cooling systems, low exergy solutions, resilient logistics systems, adapted cultivation und processing strategies in the food industry), but also organisational and institutional innovations (e.g. management of regional climate impacts, adaptive governance, further development of mechanisms und structures of the metropolitan region in terms of accompanying the implementation of the “roadmap of change,” land use management, risk communication, capacity building). A fundamental goal of the project also focuses on the understanding and improvement of the structures and processes in the still young metropolitan region of Bremen-Oldenburg in north western Germany. Here too, developing the ability to adapt and innovate – while at the same time securing the ability to implement adaptation options – is important.
The prospects of successfully bringing the most important processes in the region into operation are favourable. For one thing, the particular vulnerability of the region was recognised early and valuable preliminary work has already been done. For another, the strong political and economic support for the project are an expression of the modernisation efforts that have been undertaken in the region in recent years.

Project Consortium
Metropolitan Region Bremen-Oldenburg in the Northwest e.V.
Sustainability Center Bremen (econtur gGmbH)
University of Bremen
University of Oldenburg
Uinversity of Applied Sciences Bremen
BioConsult Schuchardt & Scholle GbR