Floods, droughts, heatwaves: Wallonia takes a new step

The development of the future Walloon Strategy for Adaptation to Climate Change takes a new step forward. The main guidelines have been identified. The work will be completed by the end of the year, resulting in a series of concrete and evidence-based actions.

The floods of July 2021 proved it: no territory is immune to extreme phenomena. Faced with this challenge, public authorities have a responsibility to anticipate, protect and prepare.

The Government is working on this through the regional strategy for adaptation to climate change. This roadmap is meant to guide public investment, better coordinate sectoral policies and further integrate the management of climate risks into decisions shaping the Walloon territory.

Following the presentation, last year, of the results of thestudy on the vulnerabilities of the Walloon territory, the Walloon Government approved the launch of work to develop an adaptation strategy accompanied by an action plan. In this context, a public contract was awarded to the Institut de Conseil et d'Études en Développement Durable (ICEDD), which supports the authorities in this process. The findings of the vulnerability study form the foundation of the strategy currently being developed and have already informed several meetings with the stakeholders involved, allowing scientific analyses to be tested against realities on the ground.

Seven key priority challenges have been identified:

1. biodiversity;


2. water and soil;


3. agriculture;


4. cities;


5. businesses and the economy;


6. social affairs and health;


7. infrastructure.

Having defined a series of objectives and strategic areas of action over the last three months, the Government intends to finalise the work by the end of the year. The coming months will be devoted to building the action plan, which will translate the agreed guidelines into concrete measures. A monitoring and evaluation framework will be set up at the same time.

In the meantime, other adaptation projects will be launched, such as a development of the mapping portal resulting from the vulnerability study to make it easier to use. This is happening alongside efforts already underway to reduce CO₂ emissions (mitigation).

A cross-cutting approach

The approach adopted shows that adaptation is not the responsibility of a single policy area. It involves all the levers that shape the territory. That is why all the Ministers, administrations and public bodies concerned are involved in the process.

The issue of flooding has naturally occupied an important place in the discussions held so far. Without being limited to crisis management, the work prioritises a preventive approach aimed at reducing risks upstream. The avenues explored include better management of surface run-off, strengthening natural infiltration into the soil, greater consideration of risks in land-use planning, and strengthening the resilience of essential infrastructure.

Cécile Neven, Walloon Minister for the Air-Climate Plan: “ The 2021 floods left a deep mark on Wallonia. We have a duty to learn every lesson from them. Preparing our territory for tomorrow's challenges is not an option: it is a matter of good governance. Our role is to anticipate risks, strengthen the resilience of the territory and better protect citizens, infrastructure and economic activity. That is the whole point of the work we are carrying out today with the entire Government, to equip the Region with a coherent, pragmatic adaptation strategy geared towards concrete action. ”