Response to the European Commission’s consultation on the European Climate Resilience and Risk Management – Integrated Framework

This submission responds to the European Commission’s consultation on the future of Climate Resilience and Risk Management in the bloc. With the extreme heat of summer 2026 bringing climate resilience to the forefront of policymakers’ minds, the authors highlight three changes the Commission should adopt to move from a patchwork of inconsistent efforts towards a coherent, EU-wide system.

Core insights

Building on the Integrated Framework for European Climate Resilience and Risk Management, the EU should:

• Establish common climate scenarios and have an honest conversation about acceptable levels of risk. These scenarios would act as reference points that accelerate the shift towards more proactive and consistent adaptation planning and investment.
• Harness the fact that adaptation presents an opportunity to build resilience and innovate in key technologies the EU already leads on. This could involve prioritising and funding early-stage research in areas such as climate-resilient agriculture and developing common standards to signal the need for climate-resilient technologies.
• Embed the ‘Resilience by Design’ principle into EU funding and scale up adaptation finance. The upcoming Multiannual Financial Framework negotiations should mandate climate-risk assessments and resilience performance indicators for all funded critical infrastructure projects.