During the EU Environment Council, ministers held an informal exchange on Europe’s climate resilience: a topic gaining increasing strategic importance as climate impacts intensify across the continent. With the European Commission preparing an Integrated Framework for Climate Resilience and Risk Management by the end of 2026, these discussions highlights the growing recognition that climate risks are becoming systemic, cross-sectoral and increasingly costly for European societies.
Drawing on its work, CERAC supports a number of key priorities that may help inform these discussions:
Towards a shared foundation for resilience assessment
Strengthening comparability across Member States will likely require a limited set of common elements, including shared climate scenarios, more harmonised risk‑assessment methodologies and a core set of indicators. While national approaches are increasingly converging, further alignment could improve access to usable data and help build a stronger, collective evidence base that supports coordinated responses to cross-border risks.
From fragmented responsibilities to coordinated action
While climate risks cut across sectors, the challenge lies in organising responsibilities and mobilising action. Moving forward may require clearer role allocation. Adaptation strategies can set the overarching framework by embedding a “climate‑resilience‑by‑design” approach across policies and investments, while leaving sectors to operationalise it through tailored measures, vulnerability assessments and stronger integration of climate risks into economic and financial decision‑making.
Bridging the gap between strategy and implementation
Across Europe, a recurring challenge remains the translation of risk awareness into operational action. Addressing this gap will require not only clearer governance frameworks, but also scaling up investment in adaptation to ensure that resilience objectives materialise on the ground.
Such investments can generate multiple forms of value, from avoided losses to broader economic, social and environmental co‑benefits. While blended finance can help mobilise private capital by de‑risking projects where returns are identifiable, many adaptation measures primarily deliver collective benefits that are not captured by markets. Ensuring their implementation will therefore also require complementary public and fiscal instruments.
As discussions progress, the future EU framework represents an opportunity to enhance coherence and preparedness, while maintaining the flexibility needed to reflect national and sectoral specificities.