The European Climate Risk Assessment has identified thirty-six climate risks across Europe, and several have already reached critical levels. Managing these risks is essential to safeguarding economic stability, competitiveness and security, yet the progress has been uneven and insufficient. The EU Climate Resilience and Risk Management Integrated Framework presents a pivotal opportunity to address these gaps and fundamentally strengthen how Europe anticipates and manages climate risk.
The case for coordinated EU action
Climate impacts are increasing across Europe, imposing significant disruptions and costs. Many of these risks cut across borders and affect energy networks, food supply chains, financial markets and transport infrastructure. Disruptions in one Member State can quickly ripple through the Single Market and national responses alone are not enough to manage these risks.
Coordinated EU action is needed to:
- manage cross-border and systemic risks at the scale at which they occur,
- safeguard the functioning of the Single Market through common resilience standards,
- protect financial stability and public finances from growing disaster losses and widening insurance protection gaps,
- mobilise investment in resilient infrastructure at a scale beyond individual actors or regions, and
- provide the shared data, scenarios and planning frameworks that allow governments, businesses and financial institutions to consistently assess and act on climate risks.
Ultimately, managing climate risks is increasingly a core task of economic governance. The question is no longer whether Europe will face these risks, but whether and how it will act proactively rather than continuing to respond only after the damage is done.
Key recommendations for the design of the EU Resilience Framework
The design and the political support of the EU Resilience Framework are the two most important factors that determine its potential for achieving a strong resilience outcome as defined above. The Framework’s design should prioritise:
- Defining, operationalising and embedding “resilience by design” across all EU policy and investment, ensuring that all major EU policies, infrastructure planning and financial instruments systematically assess climate and other interrelated risks.
- Establishing harmonised EU climate-risk assessment methodologies, with common scenarios and methodologies to guide planning, investment and policy decisions.
- Addressing systemic and cross-border climate risks by strengthening EU-level coordination to manage cascading risks affecting energy systems, supply chains, financial markets and infrastructure.
- Strengthening risk ownership and governance across Member States and levels of decision-making by maintaining robust adaptation strategies, developing cross-border response mechanisms, and integrating resilience into economic governance and policy planning.
- Protecting people and strengthening local resilience to make sure all people, including vulnerable communities, workers and local authorities, have the resources, data and support needed to prepare for and respond to climate risks.
- Mobilising finance and closing the climate insurance protection gap by strengthening public–private risk-sharing and investment mechanisms, and improving insurance coverage for climate-related disasters.
Read the full briefing for full details on the six key recommendations above.
