Climate adaptation in Europe still ‘insufficient and fragmented’
By the Climate Centre
Climate change is not a distant risk for Europe but is already “imposing substantial human, economic and environmental costs that are rising rapidly,” yet the level of current adaptation “remains insufficient and fragmented”.
This is the conclusion of a report published last week by the European Scientific Advisory Board on Climate Change – an independent body that advises the European Union.
The European continent, known to be warming faster than the global average, experienced temperatures over the past five years of as much as 2.4°C above pre-industrial levels, potentially rising to 3.3°C by the end of the century, according to the report, Strengthening Resilience to Climate Change, Recommendations for an effective EU adaptation policy framework. But adaptation does not match the “scale, pace and complexity of increasing climate risks”.
The report leads with five recommendations to strengthen adaptation across the European Union, starting with the establishment of common climate scenarios and methodological standards.
Secondly, the EU should adopt a common reference for adaptation planning based on the medium scenario for emissions that sees net zero achieved only in the year 2100, and more than 3.0°C of warming in Europe.
In addition, the EU should set out a clear vision for climate resilience by 2050, grounded in existing “science, EU commitments, and participation”; develop and maintain monitoring, evaluation and learning for adaptation; and finally mobilize investment and establish a coherent approach to managing the costs of climate impacts.
‘Europe itself is vulnerable, especially for conditions it has not faced in the past’
In recent years, Europe has experienced near-record extremes at both ends of the climate spectrum: lethal heatwaves and huge wildfires alongside devastating storms, rainfall and floods, affecting hundreds of thousands of people.
Most recently, an unusually high number of named storms have brought hurricane-force winds and dumped huge amounts of rain across Spain, Morocco and Portugal, causing billions of euros in damage.
“Twenty years ago, we’d have said those extremes are indeed going to be a problem, but primarily in poorer countries that cannot cope,” said ESABCC member Maarten van Aalst, the former Director of the Climate Centre and now Director-General of the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute.
“What we’re now noticing is that Europe itself is vulnerable, especially for conditions it has not faced in the past,” he told The Guardian newspaper. “It turns out our preparedness is not so great. And we have real work to do to upgrade our early warning systems.”
A stocktake late last year by nearly 40 European cities and regions involved in the Pathways2Resilience programme, however, found measurable positive shifts in approaches to adaptation, while through the Climate Centre’s participation in P2R the Red Cross Red Crescent network’s approach and its humanitarian perspective is being promoted in Europe, where National Societies are following a regional road map.
A P2R conference in Budapest last week welcomed 62 new regions, and heard the Climate Centre make the case that National Societies are well positioned to make science accessible to citizens and strengthen early warning systems and engagement with vulnerable communities.
The flash floods caused by the autumn 2024 depresion aislada en niveles altos, widely publicized worldwide as the DANA, was one of several alarm-call events in recent years that have triggered calls for a rethink on adaptation and early warning in Europe. Spanish Red Cross photographers provided a graphic record of the scale and lethality of the floods, and the National Society’s response. (Photo: CRE)