Within the framework of the National Adaptation Strategy (Nationale Anpassungsstrategie) and the Action Plan for Adaptation (Aktionsplan Anpassung) the local level plays a crucial role. On the one hand the closeness and spatial connection to conditions and structures offers a problem-oriented solution to risks and chances of climate change. On the other hand municipalities face challenges to cope with specific framing conditions and to build-up adequate problem solving capacities for their region. On behalf of the German Federal Environmental Agency, the project "Empower communities to systematically deal with the challenges of climate change adaptation" (KoBe) was carried out to explore factors and conditions that influence significantly the capacity of municipalities in Germany to adapt to climate change. For this purpose empirical surveys with small and medium municipalities as well as several thematic workshops with eleven municipalities were carried out.
Against this background, the project compiled recommendations for strengthening the institutional factors of the adaptive capacity of municipalities addressing especially the organisational conditions in municipalities, the integration of adaptation in formal and informal planning procedures and the capability of municipalities for strategic management.