Integrating adaptation to climate change into sustainable development policy and planning

Adaptation to climate change and sustainable development have become core elements of international, European, and national policies and strategies. The integration of climate change adaptation objectives into sustainable development ones can pave the way for planning scenarios in which resilience intertwines with sustainability. Studies concerning such an issue are quite lacking and methods useful for assessing the relationship ‘adaptation-sustainable development’ are scarcely investigated. Thus, this study aims at proposing and applying a method for assessing the coherence between climate change adaptation objectives and sustainable development objectives (i.e., national strategic goals) included in the Italian National Adaptation Plan to Climate Change and, respectively, in the National Sustainable Development Strategy. The method has proved useful to highlight adaptation objectives that can promote the achievement of -resilient to climate change-sustainable development objectives and that can be integrated into a Regional Strategy for Sustainable Development. The method is rooted in scientific literature and has potential to be applied in other European Union member states. We found that there is still plenty of room to work on sustainable adaptation objectives to be consistent with sustainable development ones.