Contribution to the European Action Plan for Adaptation to Climate Change

A collective work

This contribution is the result of a collective process involving networks of local and regional governments, businesses and civil society associations, brought together at the Climate Chance Europe-Africa Summit co-organised with the City of Marseille on 31 March and 1 April 2025.  It was mainly based on the in-depth work carried out during the forty or so sessions held at the Summit, entitled ‘Adaptation: taking action’, and sets out a series of proposals from the Climate Chance community for the future European plan for adaptation to climate change, which is currently being drawn up.

This new advocacy document, published on 30 June, will be officially presented to the European institutions in the next few days and then widely disseminated. It was unveiled on 16 June at the #ECCA2025: European Conference on Adaptation to Climate Change, held in Rimini (Italy).

Adopting ‘adaptation reflexes’ in all European policies

It sets out 39 proposals for accelerating and strengthening the implementation of the EU’s adaptation policies, improving knowledge, integrating adaptation into sectoral policies, building local and regional capacities and securing long-term funding.

This set of proposals is structured according to the plan of the current European adaptation strategy.

We insist on the first proposal: The need to adopt, at the scale of the European Union, a reference climate warming trajectory. This would provide both public and private actors with a solid reference framework for anticipating risks, building sustainable infrastructures and assessing future vulnerabilities.

• Contribution to the European Action Plan for Adaptation to Climate Change