The EU, its Member States and the private sector should invest about €70bn per year until 2050 in climate adaptation, according to a new report.
The report, commissioned by the Directorate-General for Climate Action (DG CLIMA) and funded under Horizon Europe, highlights that climate adaptation is crucial for reducing exposure to increasing climate hazards and improving resilience.
Investing in adaptation and resilience has become more urgent than ever as the trend towards warmer global temperatures continues and the socio-economic costs of climate-related events keep rising.
The EU is warming – fast
Europe is warming twice as fast as the global average, making climate adaptation a critical pillar of its survival strategy.
While mitigation efforts aim to limit future damage, adaptation is essential for managing the unavoidable impacts of a changing climate that are already occurring.
The importance of EU adaptation can be broken down into three key areas:
Economic resilience
Climate-related disasters, such as the devastating 2021 floods in Germany and Belgium or recurring Mediterranean droughts, have already cost the EU over €800bn since 1980.
Proactive adaptation acts as a financial safeguard. It is far cheaper to invest in flood defences now than to rebuild entire cities later.
Safeguarding food and water security
Agriculture is highly sensitive to shifting weather patterns. Adaptation ensures that European food systems remain viable by promoting drought-resistant crops and smarter irrigation.
Without these measures, the EU faces significant risks to its food sovereignty and rising consumer prices.
Protecting health and social equity
Heatwaves are the deadliest climate threat in Europe, disproportionately affecting the elderly and vulnerable.
Climate adaptation involves urban cooling (such as “green roofs” and parks) and updated public health protocols to save lives.
Furthermore, “just resilience” ensures that poorer regions – which may lack the resources to recover from disasters – are not left behind, maintaining the social cohesion of the Union.
Investing in the EU’s future
The study, which focuses on climate adaptation investment needs and abstracts from the costs of climate-related events, is the first of its kind and fills an important knowledge gap.
It uses a common methodology to estimate adaptation investment needs for the EU and all Member States, taking into account the risk clusters identified in the 2024 European Climate Risk Assessment (EUCRA) and individual adaptation measures at the EU and Member State levels.
The study finds that of the annual €70bn required for climate adaptation, about €30bn is needed for infrastructure, €21bn for ecosystems, and €12bn for food security.
Climate adaptation needs are not being met across the EU
The report stresses that the current supply of climate adaptation finance is insufficient and that investing in adaptation delivers co-benefits, including for climate mitigation.
While it represents a major step forward in understanding the scale and nature of adaptation investment needs, the study emphasises that better data on adaptation costs is necessary.
Adaptation investment needs and climate risks should also be better integrated into national budgetary planning, given the public sector’s primary role in implementing adaptation measures.
Which countries have the largest climate adaptation needs?
France, Italy, Germany and Spain have the largest adaptation investment needs, in part due to their geographic and economic size.
The report also finds that the scale and types of investments needed vary significantly across Member States, depending on individual country characteristics.
Overall, it stresses that further work is required to assess needs under a range of climate scenarios, desired resilience targets and residual risks, and to evaluate cost-benefit ratios for adaptation measures.
