European Commission - Speech [Check Against Delivery] Remarks by Executive Vice-President Ribera and Commissioner Hoekstra at the press conference on the EU framework for climate resilience Brussels, 27 October 2026 Executive Vice-President Ribera The two main topics we have been discussing this morning are adaptation and resilience to climate risks, addressed in the package that Commissioner Hoekstra has tabled. Let...
European Commission - Speech [Check Against Delivery] Remarks by Executive Vice-President Ribera and Commissioner Hoekstra at the press conference on the EU framework for climate resilience Brussels, 27 October 2026 Executive Vice-President Ribera The two main topics we have been discussing this morning are adaptation and resilience to climate risks, addressed in the package that Commissioner Hoekstra has tabled. Let me start with a very strong statement that we need to remind ourselves of. Climate change is not a hoax. Climate change is not only real. It is also a powerful killer. It kills people. Think about the 30,000 to 50,000 premature deaths that occurred this summer in Europe. It is also destroying wealth and infrastructure. Let me quote research by the European Central Bank, which found that local output is, on average, 1.5 percentage points lower two years after a summer heatwave, 3 percentage points lower four years after a drought and 2.8 percentage points lower four years after a flood. Let me also refer to Allianz Research data showing the strong negative economic impact that heat stress can have on labor productivity. If each country's five hottest years between 2014 and 2024 were repeated over 2026–2030, cumulative GDP losses could reach between 5% and 7% for the most exposed economies. France, Italy, Germany and Spain could each lose between $120 billion and $240 billion. The impact is structural, with a steep decline of 8%, on average, in gross fixed capital formation. It disproportionately depresses tax revenues, with many EU countries expected to breach the Maastricht criteria as a consequence of heat stress. Europe cannot be competitive without being resilient. Resilience is therefore not only an environmental objective; it is an enabling condition for long-term competitiveness. In this context, Europe has world-class capabilities in observation and the natural and social sciences, as well as digital infrastructure. The challenge is to convert these assets systematically into timely, trusted and decision-ready information. This explains why we have come forward with this proposal today. It shows the extent to which we need to work differently when thinking about climate change. The first and most effective measure to tackle climate change is to fight its root causes. But even when cutting emissions, we know we have to face its impacts. Some of these impacts are already unavoidable because they were set in motion by our past emissions. They are neither fair nor equally distributed. But the good news, as I said, is that we are not starting from zero. We have observation, research and modelling capacities, early warning systems, national adaptation plans, funding, and the EU Civil Protection Mechanism, which coordinates our response. Many mayors and authorities have already done a good job. Mayors are on the front line. More than 2400 European municipalities have mapped their climate risks. Nine in ten identify extreme heat as a risk, and eight in ten identify heavy rain and drought as major risks. But having the tools does not mean being prepared. The challenge is to act before climate change materialises in harmful and unbearable impacts on our economy and society. It is our responsibility to work hard to avoid, as much as possible, the constant suffering that these impacts entail. We live on the wealthiest continent in the world. The European Union is constitutionally committed to ensuring a high level of well-being for our citizens. Yet we can still do much more to prepare for climate impacts. Some may say resilience is expensive. But the right question is: what is the real cost of being unprepared? This summer's heat and drought are expected to cost around €180 billion, equivalent to 1% of our entire economy. In real life, this means farmers watching their harvests fail. Power plants shutting down, not because of a lack of fuel, but because of a lack of water. Workers fainting or even dying due to extreme heat when working outside during the hottest hours of the day. It is not like a storm that passes. The damage stays in our economy. Only one euro in five is insured. The rest falls on citizens, businesses and public budgets. When we are not prepared, the most vulnerable pay first: older people, farmers and families without insurance. Climate change is also regressive. Prevention is not a cost, but an investment. Our industry needs predictable water supplies, stable energy and reliable infrastructure. Our farmers need soils that can withstand drought. Businesses need to insure themselves at an affordable price. Capital goes where it feels safe and where investments can take place. Without resilience, investment becomes more expensive or simply leaves. Allow me to say a word about water resilience, because water is very important across Europe, and we need to invest in resilience. The Water Resilience Strategy provides a framework for action, but this summer has shown that we must accelerate its implementation. This is why, following the announcement by the President of the College, we will come forward with the European Water Initiative next year. We need to work on our resilience. This is why we are presenting the European Climate Resilience Framework as an enabling tool to learn together and support one another in doing better and preparing better. It helps public authorities translate the knowledge and information already available into concrete measures. It supports prevention, preparedness and response through a common approach: factoring climate into our decisions and improving our preparedness to respond to emergencies. It provides tools to understand climate risks and translate data to the local scale. Tools to support local and regional action. Tools to empower European businesses to innovate and prosper. Tools to better protect people and ensure that we all work together in the same direction. Thank you. ---- Commissioner Hoekstra Ladies and Gentlemen, We have been calling the last summer: the ‘summer of truth'. And in my view, rightly so. If you were to look at the statistics, you would find heat-related illnesses claimed more than 35,000 lives in Europe alone. We have lost roughly 700,000 hectares in terms of land, and our economy has suffered tremendously as well. Ships were unable to navigate the Rhine or the Danube. Reports indicate that the costs of the whole summer were a north of a 100 billion. Dramatic impacts, but in reality, let's see this for what it was. Yet, another ‘summer of truth'. If you were to look at the last 4 years, the EU has lost roughly €50 billion a year from climate extremes. That is, if you put it into a broader perspective, much higher than for example in the eighties when the numbers where below €10 billion. A factor of five in just a few decades. On the one hand, there is no alternative to continue to cut emissions more forcefully and move full frontal into clean energy. But at the same time, we need to acknowledge that the problem we are facing has moved into something so large than just doing that alone is unfortunately no longer good enough. This is, even if I would argue is not normal, the new normal. We will see more of this. The second reason, that of resilience and adaptation, is the one we are here for today. Last Summer may have been one of the hottest – or the hottest – on record, but it will be in all likelihood the coolest of years to come. No matter what we do, this will likely get worse. The good news is that we have some agency: the choices we make today can make those impacts less severe. More is needed at all levels, local, regional, national and of course at a European level. This is why we are coming with this Package – to help protect, plan and prepare for a warmer Europe. Ladies and gentlemen, Today's announcement makes change much more systemic, factoring in climate risk from the start rather than dealing with the consequences afterwards. It will ensure that, we as a Union, work together more strongly and more consistently. And it will give Member States, regional and local authorities the space to choose the measures best suited to their individual circumstances. Make no mistake – this comes on the back of already substantial investments in adaptation in the EU today. If you were to look at the numbers, roughly €30 billion is earmarked for climate resilience financing in the current MFF. It also aligns with our proposals for the next MFF, where adaptation spending will count towards the overall 35% climate and environment spending. But given how large the problem is, we are truly thankful for the great collaboration with the EIB and Nadia Calviño, and their recent announcement that it will invest €30 billion into climate adaptation from now until 2030 – twice the amount committed in the first half of the decade. So, what exactly are we doing? First, the reference global warming trajectory – or in simple terms: having the same understanding on how much the EU is likely to warm – will become the starting point when making decisions about policies, assets or investments. As weird as it may sound, this is not the case today, or at least not all of the time. We need to be better at building climate risks into our planning and into our decision-making based on what science tells that it is going to happen. Most of our efforts are focussed on reaching 1.5C. However, science says we are heading potentially towards 3C warming globally by the end of this century. We do need to think about this when we plan our towns, when we build infrastructure and bridges, and how we manage our land, our water and our resources. Let me give you an example. A country like Spain is historically used to droughts and heatwaves. But, in the last years, we have also seen that heavy rainstorms have overwhelmed the sewer network, forcing mixtures of rainwater, untreated sewage and urban pollutants into rivers and the sea, degrading water quality and sometimes closing beaches. The good news is that cities including Barcelona, Madrid and Alicante have been responding with rainwater retention reservoirs and sustainable urban drainage systems, such as permeable paving and floodable green spaces, to actually reduce runoff and retain water. A very good example, but our proposal today will make sure that we identify risks like those more systematically in the EU and plan in measures to address them. Second element : the new Framework will ask for a clear picture on who is in charge for managing the climate risk. Say, for example, you're living in a town somewhere in Europe and your neighbourhood has been flooded or has been dealing with wildfires. The last thing you will want to see is politicians fighting about who should be the one who should have been taking responsibility. Our package proposes that governments are clear and transparent about who is in charge of managing climate risks in key policy areas. We are not going to prescribe who needs to do it, but we are going to ask that the identification is being done. Third : we are rolling out a range of concrete measures that will help local and regional governments, businesses and every one of us to cope with climate change and its impacts. We will be identifying 100 of the most vulnerable European territories . We are setting up a Climate Insurance Alliance to make sure we do more to close the big insurance gap and increase insurance uptake, incentivise risk prevention, and make sure there's enough capacity to cover risks. Remember, and the number is intimidating I have to admit, only a quarter of catastrophe losses are covered by private insurance today. That means that too often national budgets become the insurer of last resort. We are also rolling out a European Heatwave Plan to help our cities, regions to cope in the short-term with sizzling summer temperatures. Fourth and final point : we have also developed digital tools, such as the Climate Viewer. This allows everybody to zoom in and explore risks by geographical location. Based on climate information from the Copernicus Climate Change Service, this tool is to get more and more precise. It will give you information on vulnerabilities, assets and modelling. This is an incredibly useful tool for public authorities – think about a local administrator who wants to assess what needs to be done – and for businesses. Imagine you want to do the most accurate assessment of what might happen and how to best prepare for this. You can then use this Viewer for that. When you are for example a small business producing asphalt for road construction. What they can do is to win more for businesses in Europe and make sure that we develop materials which can withstand higher temperatures. They will be able to use the Viewer to understand expected maximum temperatures in their region of operations in the medium but also in the long-term. They can also look at regions with similar patterns for best practices. Ladies and Gentlemen, Today's EU Framework for Climate Resilience is a world first. It's the first time the EU is moving so concretely and coming up with legislation. At the same time, I wouldn't say that we are nearly done. Much of this is going to be work in progress, even though it is systemic and significant. Many of these elements will only be delivered in 2027. Even after all of this package is being implemented, it is not the end of the story. The EU and the Member States simply have more ahead of them and therefore, will continue to do more. That said, we have a crystal-clear economic case for doing so. It is way better to make the upfront investment than to deal with the misery and the horrors of the heatwaves and the floods afterwards. In other words: we invest money now, save more for the future, and protect our citizens. Thank you. SPEECH/26/2264 <@rel_link@> Press contacts: Anna-Kaisa ITKONEN (+32 2 295 75 01) Ana CRESPO PARRONDO (+32 2 298 13 25) General public inquiries: Europe Direct by phone 00 800 67 89 10 11 or by email Related media College read-out / Press conference by Executive Vice-President Teresa RIBERA and Commissioner Wopke HOEKSTRA on the EU framework for climate resilience College read-out / Press conference by Executive Vice-President Teresa RIBERA and Commissioner Wopke HOEKSTRA on the EU framework for climate resilience
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