As the planet continues to warm, climate hazards will
intensify, bringing frequent, severe, persistent and far-reaching impacts. This
could increasingly weaken Europe’s competitiveness, strain public budgets and
increase security risks. Without adequate adaptation, impacts will compound,
eroding and destabilising Europe’s economic and social foundations. Despite
this, adaptation efforts to date remain insufficient to prevent avoidable
impacts and to manage escalating climate risks.
Addressing climate risks requires combined and
coordinated action across policy domains and governance levels. Local and
national action is essential to drive adaptation. At the same time, adaptation
efforts face many barriers, and many climate risks are transboundary, affecting
critical services, cross-border supply chains, as well as financial and
ecological systems. A stronger EU framework can provide coherence and long-term
direction, facilitate cooperation and solidarity, and enable Member States to
manage their climate risks more effectively.
Adaptation goes beyond climate policy. A robust EU
adaptation framework is fundamental to addressing the systemic risks that
threaten the security of critical services, food, water and energy, to
providing the stability needed to invest in a competitive and innovative
economy, and to protecting the health of EU citizens and ecosystems. (...)».









