KLAR!Wirkt

Austria's regions and municipalities are already affected by the consequences of climate change – from extreme events such as heat waves, heavy rainfall and droughts to gradual changes such as an earlier start of the growing season or the spread of new animal and plant species. Through the funding programme "Climate Change Adaptation Model Regions" (KLAR!), the Austrian Climate and Energy Fund has been supporting regions and municipalities since 2016 in adapting to the consequences of climate change, minimising negative impacts, seizing opportunities and avoiding maladaptation. The programme now comprises 93 regions with 743 municipalities and reaches around 2.2 million inhabitants.

To date, the programme's assessment has been based on the KLAR! monitoring concept and has focused predominantly on quantitative outputs, i.e. on the services delivered – such as the number of events held or people reached. Whether the actual changes intended among people, institutions and ecosystems in the regions do in fact occur has not yet been recorded systematically. The objective of the KLAR!wirkt project was therefore to develop a questionnaire-based impact measurement design with ready-to-use questionnaire items, scales and survey designs that enables an additional, more in-depth and systematic recording, analysis and communication of the short- and medium-term societal impacts of adaptation measures. Aggregating the results should allow conclusions to be drawn about the specific contribution of the KLAR! programme to achieving the goals of the Austrian Strategy for Adaptation to Climate Change.

The project is funded by the Climate and Energy Fund as part of the Austrian Climate Research Programme Implementation 2024 (ACRPI). Consortium partners include KLAR! Alpbachtal, KLAR! Bad Ischl Ebensee, and the Federal Environment Agency.

The final report was published in July 2026.