Questions and answers on the EU Climate Resilience Framework

This article is brought to you in association with the European Commission.

1. What is the objective of the new EU Climate Resilience Framework, and why is it necessary now?

The EU Climate Resilience Framework aims to strengthen Europe’s ability to anticipate, prepare for, and manage climate risks by getting ahead of those impacts and avoiding damages through coordinated action at EU, national and local levels. This more proactive and systemic approach will embed climate resilience by design across key policies and borders. The Framework combines a proposed European Climate Resilience Law with practical tools and supporting measures to help public authorities, businesses, and other stakeholders make better-informed decisions.

Preliminary data shows that more than 35,000 people died from heat-related deaths while estimated economic losses from climate damages from 2022-2025 stood at approximately €200 billion, or €50 billion per year. The estimated return on investments in climate adaptation can reach more than 10 times their value in avoided loss and damage.

Innovation can help mitigate the devastating impacts and at the same time open up economic opportunities. The demand for climate resilience products, technologies and services is increasing fast within the EU and abroad, creating new markets and export opportunities for EU companies and innovators. Global annual revenues from climate resilience solutions are projected to quadruple to €3.5 trillion by 2050. By reducing fragmentation and improving clarity on policy direction, the EU Climate Resilience Framework can help support a growing market, benefitting European business and industry.

The Framework establishes a common basis for managing climate risks in the Union and obligations for national authorities to publish national plans, supported by a shared reference trajectory for global warming that is aligned with current scientific evidence. It introduces clearer strategic planning requirements, and more accessible information on climate hazards and adaptation solutions.

2. How can the Framework help Member States, regions and local communities better adapt to climate extremes?

The new Framework will provide clearer strategic planning requirements. Member States will be able to meet their planning obligations under the proposed Climate Resilience Law, the European Climate Law and the Governance Regulation through a new single strategic plan. This will streamline and simplify planning, improve coherence, and support more consistent and comparable progress tracking under the European Climate Law, without introducing additional checks. The single consolidated plan will also enable Member States to more easily understand and compare their respective plans, benefitting in particular those Member States who share borders and similar climate risks. Examples of transboundary climate risks include disruptions to interconnected energy systems, critical infrastructure, supply chains and ecosystems.

The Framework will also improve access to harmonised climate information and practical adaptation solutions through the introduction of three new digital tools – the European Climate Viewer, the Navigator of Climate Resilience Tools, and the Missions Solutions Explorer – helping authorities identify the hazards they face, assess vulnerabilities, and determine where action is most urgently needed.

Moreover, climate risks vary across Member States, regions and communities, and the measures needed to address them need to take account of these differences. They will therefore be better able to manage climate risks under the Framework, while retaining the flexibility they need to select solutions best suited to their specific risks, circumstances, and priorities.

3. What are the main tools and resources available under the new Framework?

The new Framework introduces practical digital tools and supporting measures that make climate information and adaptation knowledge easier to access and navigate for a wider range of users. Three tools are central to this approach:

• The European Climate Viewer, developed by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF), is an interactive map of projected climate hazards that will help users to understand what the shared warming trajectory means for different parts of Europe for different time periods, locations, and sectors. The Viewer draws on the latest information from the Copernicus Climate Change Service and will evolve as additional data and functionalities become available. Thanks to the Destination Earth initiative, it will evolve to integrate supercomputing capabilities and more comprehensive climate information.
• The Navigator of Climate Resilience Tools, developed by the European Environment Agency (EEA), is a quality-assessed, central repository of climate resilience tools, helping public authorities to navigate the available solutions and choose those most relevant to their territories, sectoral needs, and climate vulnerabilities.
• The Mission Solutions Explorer is a platform showcasing practical adaptation solutions tried and tested by regions, cities, and communities across the continent that participated in projects under the EU Mission on Adaptation to Climate Change. Users can filter solutions by hazard, sector or location, and learn about the co-benefits, stakeholders involved, financing opportunities available, and the potential to replicate and upscale.

The resources and actions introduced with this Framework are complemented by existing EU funding instruments, investment programmes, climate services, and other adaptation initiatives to support local and regional action.

Finally, within six months of the adoption of the European Climate Resilience Law, the Commission will put forward an Implementation Plan. This plan will identify appropriate support for the Law’s objectives and its effective implementation, including at local and regional level. This will be done within the existing budgetary framework and future initiative.

The Commission will present a Union strategic plan on climate resilience in 2028 and every five years to ensure early and decisive action at EU level.

4. How does the Framework support Europe’s economy and energy security?

The economic damages from climate impacts are significant, and present growing risks to Europe’s economic resilience. Extreme weather can damage infrastructure and productive assets, interrupt supply chains, disrupt energy and transport systems, derail business continuity, and increase pressure on public finances and emergency services. These impacts can undermine investment, productivity, and the long-term competitiveness of European businesses. Investing in climate resilience makes therefore economic sense. Estimated annual EU investment needs for climate resilience and adaptation around €70 billion per year.

The Framework aims to reduce avoidable losses by encouraging climate risks to be identified and addressed earlier in planning and investment decisions. A common approach to climate risk management, combined with stronger strategic planning, on the public side can also help businesses better understand their exposure and make more informed decisions about protecting assets and operations.

The Framework provides a number of enabling measures for the Member States to support businesses investing in climate resilience projects, through for instance taxation or State aid measures. Public finance should be a catalyst to further mobilise private capital on climate resilience. The Commission will work closely with international and European bodies to support that objective and ensure that investment decisions better reflect climate-related risks. It will similarly support through guidance and other practical assistance corporates to integrate climate risks into their climate resilience plans. On 22 October, complementing today’s Framework, the European Investment Bank Group presented its Climate Adaptation plan doubling its financing on climate resilience to at least €30 billion by 2030.

Insurance is another crucial element in this equation to better manage climate risks as it will ease the pressure on public finances and free resources for other preventive measures. The Commission will set up a Climate Insurance Alliance to present actionable measures and explore solutions to reduce the insurance protection gap for natural catastrophes. These measures will aim at increasing the insurance uptake, incentivising risk prevention and assuring adequate insurance capacity.

Anticipatory action also strengthens Europe’s security, where more frequent and severe climate impacts threaten the physical safety of people in their homes and workplaces, disrupting essential services and compromising the functioning of critical infrastructure. Energy security benefits also come with preparing our energy systems for climate impacts, from low river levels that disrupt fuel transport to heatwaves that strain our electricity grids. By helping authorities manage these risks, the Framework will help safeguard energy supplies and reduce the risk of costly disruptions.

5. How will the Framework help protect European citizens and businesses?

Climate impacts affect people’s health, safety, livelihoods, and quality of life, as well as the continuity of essential services and business operations. Extreme heat, floods, droughts, and wildfires can also cause direct harm, disrupt public services, and damage homes, workplaces, and infrastructure. The objective of the Framework is to support and enable actions that minimise the harms and damages that come with these impacts.

For citizens, climate resilience must be fair. Climate impacts do not affect everyone equally: people in vulnerable situations may face greater exposure to hazards and have fewer resources to prepare, recover or adapt, increasing regional inequalities. The Framework introduces the concept of “just resilience” to ensure take these differences are considered in managing climate risks. Better risks assessments and climate risk-informed public decision-making will help identify vulnerable groups and regions, enabling early identification of climate risks and taking targeted protective measures. The Commission is taking further action to better protect those most exposed to climate risks, including by identifying 100 of Europe’s most climate vulnerable territories and setting up a Climate Insurance Alliance to improve insurance protection and support risk prevention.

The Commission will complement these efforts with an integrated European Heatwave Plan, in response to the urgent need to strengthen EU preparedness for the impact of heat on health, especially on vulnerable groups and EU health systems, and the launch of a PreparEU Advisory Group on disaster preparedness. In view of the heat impact of EU river basins, the Commission will also present a new European Water initiative focusing on water efficiency and reuse, drought and flood resilience and publish new guidance on drought risk management and drought indicators before the end of this year.

Initiatives, such as the Social Climate Fund, promote investments in climate resilience technologies in support of the most vulnerable and the recent proposal for a revised public procurement directive for instance will foster climate resilience solutions into the market thanks to the inclusion of climate resilience as a quality criterion for public buyers.

6. How is the Framework compatible with other EU policies and sectors?

Climate resilience is a cross-cutting issue among all sectors of the economy. Climate impacts affect and undermine the implementation and effectiveness of EU policies across infrastructure, energy, agriculture, water, health, transport, environment, and economic development. Integrating climate risks into decision-making is therefore essential to protect investments, maintain essential services, and ensure that progress in one policy area is not undermined by climate impacts in another.

The Framework builds on existing EU and Member State adaptation policies, including the European Climate Law and the EU Adaptation Strategy. It applies the climate-resilience-by-design principle across EU policies and seeks to improve coherence through a common reference global warming trajectory for policy proposals and initiatives, clearer strategic planning requirements, and more accessible climate information.

The possibility for Member States to meet their planning obligations under the Climate Resilience Law, the European Climate Law and the Governance Regulation through a single consolidated plan will also reduce duplication and make better use of existing processes and assessments.

In practice, the Framework can support the integration of climate risks into infrastructure planning, investment decisions and sectoral strategies. For example, climate-informed planning can help identify vulnerabilities in energy networks, water systems, transport infrastructure, and agricultural production, as well as the interdependencies between them.

It can also complement existing approaches to sustainable investment and environmental safeguards, including the principle of “do no significant harm” where applicable.

The Framework respects the different responsibilities and circumstances of Member States. It establishes a common basis for managing climate risks while leaving national, regional and local authorities flexibility to determine the most appropriate measures. This approach aims to improve consistency across Europe without imposing a one-size-fits-all model.

7. How does the Framework integrate international action on adaptation?

The Framework builds first and foremost on the Paris Agreement and on existing international and European commitments. It reflects the principle that mitigation and adaptation must advance together: global emissions reductions are essential to limit future climate risks, while adaptation is necessary to manage impacts that are already occurring and to prevent them.

Through dedicated climate resilience partnerships, the EU also aims to forge new and reinforce existing bilateral relationships with third countries and strengthen cooperation with regional organisations and other stakeholders, to promote global climate resilience and the wider uptake of adaptation solutions.

The EU also supports practical adaptation action through initiatives such as the EU Mission on Adaptation to Climate Change, which works with regions and communities to accelerate the development and implementation of climate-resilience solutions. The Mission’s ambition to support at least 150 European regions and communities in becoming climate-resilient by 2030 provides an important complementary pathway for translating knowledge into action.

The Mission Solutions Explorer will help share lessons from these efforts, including practical approaches that can be adapted and replicated in different settings. More broadly, the Framework can strengthen the European knowledge base and the development of solutions relevant to international adaptation efforts.

The proposed Framework is primarily focused on strengthening climate resilience within the EU. It should therefore be understood as complementing international cooperation on adaptation and climate finance.

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