Climate Adaptation Support for Enterprises in the Baltic Sea Region (CASES BSR)

In recent years, climate change has become an increasingly important challenge that will also affect the future of Vidzeme. Climate change is increasing the risks of storms, floods and forest fires. More extreme weather conditions are more common. Citizens and businesses are increasingly faced with limited resources. Biodiversity in the region is declining. There is growing societal demand and efforts to move to a low carbon model. It might seem that parts of the Western world have not yet been affected by climate change to the same extent as countries with warmer climates, but it is only a matter of time. Society is already being affected. An important perspective that is often overlooked is the impact of climate change in trade and industry. Raising business awareness is needed because climate change risks reducing their long-term competitiveness if no action is taken to adapt to climate change. Often large industrial companies have developed climate adaptation strategies and are ready for changes, while most small businesses have neither the knowledge nor the resources to adapt their businesses to the challenges of climate change.

The project aims to identify issues related to the impact of climate change on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and the growing needs of SMEs to adopt climate adaptation strategies to increase their long-term competitiveness. As a result, preparing a new, larger-scale project application to attract funding for the implementation of identifying solutions to support small and medium-sized enterprises in adapting to climate change.