In response to the publication of the first-ever European climate risk assessment by the European Environment Agency (EEA) (see EUROPE 13368/11), the European Commission unveiled, on Tuesday 12 March, its Communication on anticipating and addressing climate risks and promoting climate resilience.
“We need to understand what this Communication is all about. It is a trajectory, the very first approach to dealing with the problem (...) and not an implementation plan for each action. (...) It’s also a question of funding, of ensuring that it becomes widespread”, explained the European Commissioner for Climate Action, Wopke Hoekstra, at a press conference at the European Parliament in Strasbourg.
The Commission is therefore unveiling its first proposals for concrete action to maintain societal functions and protect people, economic competitiveness and the health of the EU’s economies and businesses, while ensuring a just transition.
This publication comes against a political context in which the measures in the European Green Deal are being called into question, against a backdrop of major criticism from farmers in recent weeks, but also from parties on the right of the political spectrum in the run-up to the elections.
However, Mr Hoekstra pointed out that Europe was the fastest-warming continent and said he was “convinced that the Commission, even in its next mandate, will continue to push things forward” in order to guard against climate risks.
Costs of climate impacts. The idea behind its communication is that rapid investment in reducing vulnerability to climate change will come at a much lower cost than the considerable sums needed to recover from climate impacts, such as droughts, floods, forest fires, disease, crop failure or heat waves.
These, “according to a conservative estimate”, could reduce “the EU’s GDP by around 7% by the end of the century”, says the communication. Therefore, “if global warming exceeds the 1.5 degree threshold set by the Paris Agreement on a more permanent basis, the cumulative additional reduction in GDP for the EU as a whole could amount to €2.4 trillion between 2031 and 2050”.
In addition, the annual damage caused by coastal flooding in Europe could exceed €1.6 trillion by 2100, with 3.9 million people exposed to coastal flooding each year.
How to manage climate risks. The Commission’s action plan focuses on four main areas.
Firstly, improved governance, encouraging closer cooperation between national, regional and local levels to share knowledge and resources.
“While steady progress can be seen at EU level through the implementation of the EU Adaptation Strategy, Member States still have much to do on aspects related to governance, awareness-raising, equity and fair resilience, financing and nature-based solutions”, the Communication states.
It also points out that there is a gap between the draft National Energy and Climate Plans (NECPs) and the adaptation measures planned and implemented by the Member States.
In addition, better tools are needed to make political decision-makers, companies and investors aware of their responsibilities in order to understand the links between climate risks, investments and long-term financing strategies. This requires access to solid data. More generally, the Commission is encouraging the use of monitoring, forecasting and warning systems, in particular via the Galileo service, which will be available in 2025.
Member States’ existing structural policies, effectively harnessed to manage climate risks, are another lever for action. This includes linking solidarity mechanisms at EU level - such as the European Civil Protection Mechanism, the EU Solidarity Fund and Cohesion Policy structural investments (the latter should reach €118 billion between 2021 and 2027 for adaptation and mitigation) - with adequate national resilience measures.
Finally, the Communication calls for the mobilisation of sufficient funds, both public and private. On this point, the Commission says it is ready to help Member States improve and mainstream climate-risk budgeting in national budgetary processes. It will also convene a temporary Reflection Group on mobilising Climate Resilience Financing. It also calls on EU countries to include environmental sustainability criteria in public procurement tenders.
Water management
The Commission is also making proposals for action in the six main impact clusters identified by the EEA: natural ecosystems, water, health, food, infrastructure and the built environment, and the economy.
In addition, although the Communication on water management was finally withdrawn from the Commission’s agenda, the current document includes a specific paragraph on the subject and describes the threats to this resource.
As the text points out, increasingly frequent droughts and floods pose significant risks to public health, food security, drinking water supplies and energy production, resulting in major economic, social and environmental losses.
Against this backdrop, the Commission is warning of the high costs of insufficient action, estimating annual losses due to drought at €9 billion and those due to flooding at over €170 billion since 1980.
It announced its intention to take stock of these issues in a comprehensive way, based on assessments of current management plans, while affirming the need for integrated management of water issues to make Europe resilient in the face of water-related challenges.
Communication: https://aeur.eu/f/ba4 (Original version in French by Pauline Denys with Nithya Paquiry)