Posted on March, 12 2024

The Communication, which calls on the EU and Member States to be much better prepared for climate risks, fails to match the level of urgency and to tackle the root causes of climate risks such as intensive agriculture, overexploitation of water resources and ecosystem degradation. 

Claire Baffert, Senior Policy Officer for Water and Climate Change Adaptation, said: “The EEA report calls on the EU to use its existing and future policies to boost climate adaptation. This should be achieved by ending harmful EU subsidies for agriculture and fisheries, and prioritising nature-based climate adaptation solutions such as giving space to wetlands and diverse forests which store water and absorb carbon, and restoring oceans which are the world’s greatest carbon sinks. Instead, the measures announced in the Commission fail to offer hope that the Commission has understood the urgency of the need to act.” 

The Communication on ‘managing climate risks - protecting people and prosperity’ released today, outlines new EU actions on the main risk categories identified by the EEA report, but many of them lack ambition, in particular those related to food, water and marine ecosystems. For instance, while it acknowledges the severity of water risks and the urgency to improve water management, the Commission only announces that it will “take stock of water issues comprehensively”. 

The EEA’s warnings were published in its Climate Risk Assessment which found that over half of the 36 major climate risks identified demand more action now and eight of them are particularly urgent, including ecosystem conservation, protecting people against heat, and protecting people and infrastructure from sea-level rise, floods and wildfires. The report stresses that urgent and coordinated action is required at both EU and Member State level to increase our resilience. It points out that “the key EU policies related to food production, the CAP and the CFP, do not address climate risks and adaptation needs adequately.”

This communication comes as Europe continues to bake. Last February 2023 was the second hottest on record, ocean temperatures hit the highest all-time record this February [1], dry conditions are again affecting most of the Mediterranean region [2], while floods have caused the loss of life and damaged people’s properties and livelihoods in France. 

“As the impacts of climate breakdown continue to intensify, and are being felt all over Europe, the EU needs to treat this as the emergency it is - and the Commission’s response to the European Environment Agency’s frightening report says far too little about the need for much faster emissions cuts. We need radical action this decade, and for the EU to reach climate neutrality by 2040” said Alex Mason, Head of Climate & Energy at WWF European Policy Office.

“It won’t be easy, but the alternative - trying to adapt to runaway climate change - will be nearly impossible. Protecting EU citizens isn’t just about the climate, it is about our energy independence, economy, health, ecosystems and food security. It encompasses our whole society, and any time for complacency is long past” he added.

WWF is calling for a new climate adaptation framework which guides, coordinates and drives Member States’ action better than the EU Adaptation Strategy does, and prioritises nature-based solutions, including a Water and Climate Resilience Law. [3]

Note to editors:

[1] The EUCRA finds that marine and coastal ecosystems are the most exposed to climate risks among all ecosystems. 

[2] https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC137036 

[3] Today was also the planned date for the release of the now-shelved EU Communication on water resilience. In March nearly 30 organisations called for a nature-based EU water resilience initiative to be put back on the agenda before the 2024 EU elections.