Climate change presents specific dangers for the unique mountain ecosystem of the Alps. As Michael Müller, State Secretary in the Federal Environment Ministry said in Benediktbeuren on Wednesday: "Nature reacts particularly sensitively here, because nowhere else in Europe will you find so many sensitive areas of natural landscape within such a relatively small region. In addition, in the Alps it is becoming very clear that some negative impacts of climate change can no longer be avoided." In view of the alarming findings of the 4th IPCC Assessment Report on anthropogenic climate change, the Federal Environment Ministry and the Bavarian State Ministry for the Environment, Health and Consumer Protection hosted the first national conference "Climate Change in the Alps - Facts, Impacts, Adaptation".
According to the latest model calculations, the Alps have to anticipate a warming twice as high as the general German average. The risk of extreme weather events will increase. The Alps will be particularly affected by the impacts of climate change, i.a. increases in heat waves, as in summer 2003, an increasing trend towards heavy precipitation and floods and many alpine plants being endangered. In addition, many winter sport regions will lose their snow reliability.
In view of these developments, Alpine states believe that in the coming years their cooperation must focus on climate policy and the development of adaptation policies. On the occasion of the IX. Conference of Alpine Regions in November 2006, the environment ministers passed a declaration on climate change in the Alps.
Climate protection concepts of the Federal Republic and the Federal state of Bavaria are centred around a preventive two-track strategy: mitigation and adaptation, i.e. reducing greenhouse gas emissions on the one hand while at the same time researching regional climate changes and the implementation of adaptation strategies on the other. Michael Müller called upon Alpine communities to cooperate actively: "The local level will play an essential role in solving future problems of mountain regions. The Alpine region has many opportunities to become a model region for climate protection. This should be a joint task of us all."