Recent droughts, wildfires and heatwaves across Europe show the danger climate change poses to economic production, natural systems and human life. As climate risks intensify, unmanaged, ever greater and far-reaching climate impacts could jeopardise European’s unity and solidarity. This briefing offers analysis and recommendations for how the EU budget can best reinforce Europe’s climate risk management.
The EU must act to ensure an adequate and timely public policy response to prevent and manage climate risk. The next Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) is an opportunity to align Europe’s response to climate risk across its instruments. The proposed €1.3 trillion, 7-year budget (2021-2027) can be effective in integrating climate risk across all of Europe’s policies provided the design is adequate.
The MFF can significantly reinforce Europe’s management of climate risk by:
- Providing more funding for climate resilience, supported by new assessments of projected climate risk, resilience needs, and better tracking of actual spending.
- Climate-proofing all investment, i.e. ensuring that each euro allocated and spent will not undermine efforts to curb climate change.
- Revamping the EU’s approach to disaster risk management, by investing on preparation for and recovery from crises, in addition to solely reacting to them.
Read the full briefing, Reducing climate risk in the post-2020 EU budget: how the multi-annual financial framework can make Europe safer, here.
