As climate impacts intensify across Europe, the European Union is stepping up its action on climate adaptation and resilience, alongside its efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. While mitigation remains essential to limit global warming, the EU acknowledges that Europe must also adapt to a changing climate whose effects are already being felt and will persist for decades.
Against this backdrop, the European Commission is developing a new integrated framework for European climate resilience and risk management, aimed at helping Member States prevent, prepare for and respond to the growing impacts of climate change. To ensure broad stakeholder involvement, the Commission has launched an open public consultation on climate resilience, inviting input from citizens, experts and organisations across the EU. The framework is expected to be adopted in the second half of 2026, following a thorough impact assessment, and will operationalise the principles of the EU Adaptation Strategy adopted in 2021.
New evidence supporting this policy push comes from a study commissioned by the Commission’s Directorate-General for Climate Action (DG CLIMA) and funded under Horizon Europe. According to the assessment, the EU, its Member States and the private sector should invest about €70 billion per year in climate adaptation until 2050 to reduce exposure to increasing climate hazards and strengthen resilience across Europe.
The study represents the first comprehensive assessment, based on a bottom-up approach, of climate adaptation investment needs at both European and national levels. The analysis uses a common methodology aligned with the conceptual framework of the 2024 European Climate Risk Assessment (EUCRA), in particular by applying the same risk categories and the five sectoral clusters identified by EUCRA (Infrastructure, Health, Ecosystems, Food Security, and Economy & finance).
This analysis, consistent with medium-term climate risks, indicates that approximately €30 billion per year are required for infrastructure, €21 billion for ecosystems, and €12 billion for food security, with additional needs in health, economic resilience and cross-cutting areas such as research, innovation, education and governance.
Investment needs vary significantly across Member States depending on geographic exposure, economic structure, and national characteristics. France, Italy, Germany, and Spain show the highest needs, partly due to their size and the value of assets exposed to climate risks. The study emphasizes that, although progress has been made, significant challenges remain in meeting investment needs at the national level.
Financing Gaps and Key Actions to address them
In detail, over the period 2021–2027, the EU allocated around €662 billion to climate-relevant actions through the European budget and key instruments such as the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF), cohesion policy, and the Common Agricultural Policy. However, only a portion of these resources can be confidently attributed to adaptation, as many interventions contribute both to mitigation (i.e., reducing greenhouse gas emissions) and climate resilience, making a precise distinction complex.
The report also highlights that private capital mobilization for adaptation remains limited, despite positive signals from the EU sustainable finance framework. Uncertainties regarding investment returns, still-maturing business models, and an underestimation of physical climate risks persist. In addition, many Member States face difficulties in translating adaptation priorities into investment-ready projects, partly due to the often local and fragmented nature of solutions.
The study concludes that stronger integration of climate risks and adaptation needs into national budget planning is essential to bridge the gap between strategic ambitions and concrete implementation. Improved harmonization of risk and adaptation cost data, together with the use of innovative financial instruments and public-private partnerships, can help make projects more bankable and mobilize additional resources.
Finally, the research highlights that adaptation investments generate benefits beyond climate resilience, also contributing to mitigation, public health, ecosystem protection, and long-term economic stability. Recognizing these co-benefits and prioritizing “no-regret” and “low-regret” measures will be crucial to ensure efficient use of resources and build a more resilient European Union by 2050.
For more information, visit the About Climate Adaptation and Resilience section on the European Commission’s website and consult the Assessment of EU and Member States Adaptation Investment Needs for detailed data and analysis.