European Commission presents EU Climate Resilience Framework

On 27 October 2026, the European Commission presented its EU Framework for Climate Resilience. The package includes a Communication to the European Parliament and the Council, a proposal for a Regulation establishing a European Climate Resilience Law (“Draft Law”), an impact assessment as well as a set of non-legislative initiatives.

The private sector is not directly subject to the Draft Law; it is addressed to public authorities. However, the Commission's explanatory memorandum states that the proposal also seeks to improve private sector awareness of climate risks and the private sector's capacity to apply climate resilience solutions so that climate risks identified by the EU and Member States are fed into the private sector’s investment and business decisions.

Communication

The Commission's Communication sets out the context for the EU Framework for Climate Resilience. The Commission notes, in particular, that:

• Climate resilience is becoming a core EU economic and security priority: Europe needs to shift from reacting to climate damage to anticipating and managing risks systematically, alongside continued emissions reduction.
• Significant investment will be needed: EU adaptation and resilience needs are estimated at around EUR 70 billion per year, while such investment can generate returns of roughly 2 to 10 times its value through avoided damages and losses.
• Resilience is to be embedded across EU policy, including energy, transport, buildings, agriculture, water, nature, health, employment and critical infrastructure, making "climate resilience by design" a broad policy principle.
• There is also a commercial opportunity: the global market for climate-resilience products, technologies and services is estimated to reach around EUR 3.5 trillion by 2050, and the Commission wants EU companies to become global leaders in it.

The EU's binding climate legislation has until now focused chiefly on cutting greenhouse gas emissions. The Draft Law is the first dedicated EU legislative framework aimed at preparing for the impacts of climate change. This blog post focuses on the main elements of the Draft Law.

Why a new law now

The first European Climate Risk Assessment and Commission’s 2024 communication on managing climate risks found that progress on climate resilience across the EU is uneven. It is also not keeping pace with accelerating climate change. The European Scientific Advisory Board on Climate Change, in a February 2026 report on strengthening resilience to climate change, found that existing climate resilience policies across the EU and its Member States remain insufficient and fragmented. It described them as largely incremental, often coming too late, and not matched to the scale and pace of climate risk. 

The Commission refers to the IPCC's Sixth Assessment Report which indicates that that the global warming is projected to reach around 2°C above pre-industrial levels by 2050, and around 3°C by the end of the century. The European Scientific Advisory Board on Climate Change estimates that, applied to Europe, this could mean average temperatures rising by 4°C to 5°C by 2100 compared with the pre-industrial average. Europe is the fastest-warming continent, heating up at around twice the global average rate. 

The existing European Climate Law (see our previous blog posts here and here) already requires the EU and Member States to keep improving their adaptive capacity and resilience to climate change. The Commission's own review found that national adaptation frameworks are largely in place, but that significant weaknesses remain in how they are implemented. Member States also currently rely on different assumptions about future climate conditions. They use different warming scenarios and run their assessments on different cycles, and they cover different sectors. This makes it hard to compare how prepared different parts of the EU actually are.

The legal instrument

The Commission chose a Regulation rather than a Directive, because a Regulation applies directly and avoids the delays that come with Member States having to transpose rules into national law. 

The Draft Law sits alongside existing EU climate legislation and amends one existing instrument: the Governance Regulation. The Governance Regulation is the EU's existing framework for planning and reporting on energy and climate policy, including national energy and climate plans.

In short, the Draft Law will provide a common reference warming trajectory, and will require regular risk assessments and single national climate-resilience plans.

Key elements of the Draft Law

The Draft Law sets out a number of suggestions aimed at making risk management more forward-looking across all levels of government.

• Reference global warming trajectory

Article 4 sets out a reference global warming trajectory for the short, medium and long term. This trajectory reflects current scientific evidence that the world is on a path to warm by 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels by 2030, by 2°C by 2050, and by 3°C by 2100. It is meant to give public authorities a shared, science-based starting point for assessing climate risk.

Member States must encourage public authorities to take the trajectory into account when they carry out public functions that affect climate resilience. This includes budgeting, spatial planning, and environmental impact assessments. This is a soft duty to consider the trajectory, not a binding target.

Setting the trajectory does not change the binding 2050 climate-neutrality target that already exists under the European Climate Law. The Regulation itself does not set any new, legally binding climate resilience targets. The Commission can update the trajectory later, based on new scientific evidence.

• Climate risk assessments

The European Environment Agency must carry out an EU-wide climate risk assessment by 30 June 2028, and then every five years. 

Each Member State must carry out its own national assessment by 30 June 2029, and then every five years. National assessments must take the EU-wide assessment into account. Once finalised, the assessments must be published, though Member States can withhold classified or security-sensitive information.

• Strategic plans on climate resilience

The Commission must adopt a EU-wide strategic plan on climate resilience by 30 September 2028. Each Member State must adopt its own national strategic plan by 31 December 2030. Both must then be reviewed and updated every five years.

These plans can be combined with the separate adaptation strategy that the European Climate Law already requires, so Member States do not have to produce two documents. Together with related changes to the Governance Regulation, this is meant to replace four separate planning documents with a single plan.

Each Member State must appoint a central authority to oversee its plan, and must name the public authority responsible for managing each major climate risk it identifies. National plans must also set out the measures needed to address those risks, including timeframes, estimated costs, and how they will be funded.

• Working across borders

When preparing or updating its national plan, each Member State must consult any other Member State likely to be significantly affected by it, including at least its neighbours. This consultation must cover shared risks, planned measures, and options for working together.

• Online information and reporting

The Commission must also make an online platform available, giving the public access to information on climate risk and resilience. Eurostat must publish EU-wide statistics on deaths and economic losses caused by climate change, starting by the end of 2030 and then every year.

• Changes to the Governance Regulation

Changes to the Governance Regulation are aimed at avoiding two sets of rules asking Member States for the same information twice. The Governance Regulation currently requires Member States to include adaptation goals in their national energy and climate plans, and to report on them separately. The proposal removes those specific requirements, because they will now be covered by the new national strategic plans instead.

Member States will report on their climate resilience work through one existing reporting channel under the Governance Regulation, now updated to ask for the right information, every two years starting in 2029.

Where will the financing come from?

The Draft Law does not create new funding mechanisms for climate resilience measures. Financing is expected to come from the EU's wider budget tools. Under the Commission's proposal, the EU's 2028-2034 long-term budget will support climate resilience, with climate adaptation investments counting towards a target of spending at least 35% of the overall budget on climate and environment. Resilience projects will also be able to draw on existing programmes, including the National and Regional Partnership Plans, Horizon Europe, the LIFE Programme, and the European Competitiveness Fund.

The existing Social Climate Fund, worth up to EUR 86.7 billion, is also expected to help fund resilience-related measures for vulnerable groups. Separately, according to the Communication, the European Investment Bank has committed at least EUR 30 billion to climate adaptation financing between 2026 and 2030.

Non-legislative measures

The Communication accompanying the Draft Law sets out further measures that are policy commitments rather than legal obligations.

• The Commission is launching new online tools, including the European Climate Viewer, which shows projected climate hazards across Europe, the Navigator of Climate Resilience Tools that would help users find relevant climate resilience tools and solutions, as well as the Solutions Explorer. 

• Within six months of the law being adopted, the Commission plans to publish an Implementation Plan, setting out how it will support Member States, including at local and regional level.
• The Commission intends to set up a Climate Insurance Alliance, bringing together insurers, reinsurers, insurance intermediaries, investors, EIOPA and public authorities, among others. The Alliance is expected to deliver its first set of measures by the end of 2027, aimed at increasing insurance uptake, encouraging risk prevention, and making sure enough insurance capacity is available for climate-related disasters.
• The Commission has also announced a European Heatwave Plan to strengthen EU preparedness for the health impacts of extreme heat, especially on vulnerable groups and health systems. It is one of several further initiatives flagged alongside the Framework, including a European Water initiative, a PreparEU Advisory Group on disaster preparedness, and the identification of Europe's 100 most climate-vulnerable territories.

Next steps

The Draft Law now moves into the ordinary legislative procedure, where it needs to be agreed by the European Parliament and the Council. Once it is agreed, it will apply automatically in every Member State. Member States will not need to adopt their own national laws to bring it into effect.