Extreme weather and uneven climate adaptation challenge Europe’s resilience

Europe experiences record-breaking temperatures, severe floods, droughts and wildfires intensified by climate change. The European Environment Agency (EEA) published today three new products dedicated to climate resilience, to help decision-makers, communities and citizens understand and respond to the growing impacts of climate change.

Since the 1980s, Europe has been warming at twice the global average, and weather and climate- related extremes are taking a huge toll. The European Union has registered EUR 822 billion total losses in the period of 1980-2024, with 25% of these losses registered between 2021 and 2024 – a sign that the events and their effects are intensifying. The same events produced, unfortunately, over 441,000 fatalities.

Even with significant mitigation efforts reducing greenhouse gas emissions, these impacts will continue to intensify. This means that climate resilience and adaptation are essential to protect people, economy and infrastructure.

Two publications released today by the EEA cover climate resilience efforts that span the full range of governance levels — from country level down to Europe's smallest communities — and are accompanied by a new interactive platform consolidating the EEA's knowledge base on extreme weather events.