The Pyrenean Climate Change Strategy (EPiCC) is part of a global framework for fighting climate change, supported by a series of initiatives and actions at international, regional and national level.

Climate change is a global phenomenon that affects all regions of the world and has serious consequences for the environment, such as an increase in extreme weather events, a decrease in snow and ice cover and a rise in sea levels. These environmental effects threaten the integrity of the territory and the populations living in it.

Cross-border cooperation is necessary to achieve effective action, including the participation of all territories according to their capacities.

The Pyrenees are a mountain bioregion particularly vulnerable to the effects of climate change and with very particular socio-political and economic characteristics.

Two aspects identify this territory and give it its own identity:

• the mountainous nature of the territory
• the cross-border approach.

Mountain areas are particularly affected by climate change, not only because of the increase in average temperatures or the worsening of extreme weather phenomena, but also because of the way it affects the distribution of plant and animal species, the productive rhythms of harvests, the well-being of herds, the multifunctional role of forests, the survival of unique ecosystems and the very health of their inhabitants. On the other hand, seven regional climate change policies from three countries converge in this territory: two EU Member States, France and Spain, and a third country, Andorra. Most of these policies do not sufficiently take into account two different facts

Therefore, it seems necessary to define a cross-border strategy on climate change for the entire bioregion

As a result of more than 2 years' work of participation, design and cooperation in which researchers, territorial references in climate change, administrations, public bodies, associations from the seven Pyrenean regions and from all the areas covered by the EPiCC (climate, Natural Areas, Mountain Economy, Population, Territory and Governance), among other things, have collaborated, The present document is intended to be a key strategic framework for integrating lines of action to promote adaptation to climate change, integrating those currently being implemented and/or launching new ones based on successful experiences in the Pyrenees, and to coordinate the efforts of all levels, sectors and actors involved.

The Pyrenees Climate Change Observatory OPCC, aware of the importance of public participation in climate change actions and aware that participation and being informed is a

citizen's right, has launched a public consultation process for the EPiCC. It is essential to know the opinion of the population who, in the end, are the ones for whom the policies are developed and to whom they are directed. We understand public consultation, therefore, as the instrument that will allow us to know and incorporate the contributions and suggestions of the public in order to enrich and improve the implementation of this Pyrenean Climate Change Strategy.

We thank you in advance for your valuable contributions, which will be taken into account, as far as possible, in the final version of the EPiCC, and its subsequent presentation and approval by the governments of the 7 Pyrenean regions in the plenary of the CTP. All information is available on the EPiCC website (more info).