Climate change impacts, risks and adaptation

Climate change is already impacting Europeans’ daily lives and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. Europe is expected to get warmer, some regions getting drier, while others wetter.

These changes will not only impact our health but also the ecosystems we depend on. The EU is preparing to live with a changing climate through various adaptation measures.

Climate change is happening now — and even if we effectively reduce global emissions, it will continue to impact our lives. Flooding, droughts, heatwaves and other climate-related hazards are becoming more intense, longer and more frequent. These hazards carry significant health and economic impacts. Some communities and regions are more vulnerable, but over all, Europe is not prepared for rapidly growing climate risks.

Extreme weather events like storms, heatwaves and flooding accounted for 85,000 to 145,000 human fatalities across Europe, over the past 40 years. Over 85% of those fatalities were due to heatwaves. Economic losses from weather and climate-related extremes in Europe reached around half a trillion euros over the same period.

Less than a third of non-human losses were covered by insurance. Closing the climate protection gap by increasing insurance coverage can help increase societies’ ability to recover from disasters, reduce vulnerability, and promote resilience.

Building infrastructure that is resistant to hazards and using nature-based solutions like floodplains are examples of adaptation measures. Climate change adaptation measures are critical to increase our resilience and reduce disaster risks for all people in the EU.

Europe is not prepared for rapidly growing climate risks

Europe is the fastest warming continent in the world, and climate risks are threatening its energy and food security, ecosystems, infrastructure, water resources, financial stability, and people’s health.

According to our assessment, many of these risks have already reached critical levels and could become catastrophic without urgent and decisive action.

Extreme weather events are increasingly influencing adaptation policies

Climate risk assessments that take account of threats like heatwaves, droughts, floods and wildfires are increasingly being used to inform and improve national adaptation policies.

Heatwaves, droughts, floods and increasing wildfires were the top extreme weather events reported by national authorities in 2023. Many countries also reported that they expected an increase of frequency and intensity of these events.

Europe’s regions will need to prepare for different impacts

While climate change impacts are felt throughout the EU, the impacts felt in different regions will vary. Our assessment also shows that some regions are more vulnerable:

Changes in rainfall will differ considerably throughout Europe, with expected heavy rain in the north. Combined with more frequent heatwaves, lower rainfall will present a greater risk of drought and forest fires in the south.

Storm intensity is projected to increase across Europe, but changes in frequency are projected to differ across regions.

Snowfall is projected to decrease in central and southern Europe, whereas mixed changes are anticipated for northern Europe.

Sea levels will rise in all areas except the North Baltic Sea.

Sea surface temperature is projected to increase in all European seas. Europe’s seas are also expected to become more acidic.