Strengthening EU action for health and climate resilience

The health burden from climate change in Europe keeps growing, with heat as a leading threat, claiming over 47,000 lives in 2023 alone. In response to the growing climate risk, the European Union is expected to launch a climate resilience framework by the end of 2026, building on the EU adaptation strategy with a climate-resilience-by-design approach. This is urgently needed, given that the EU and member states remain unprepared for the health impacts of climate change, show uneven progress on climate resilience, and lack adequate monitoring and evaluation systems.

Given the scale of this challenge, HEAL’s new policy briefing makes the case that health resilience by design must be integrated into ongoing adaptation efforts. It provides recommendations to strengthen health protection, specially for vulnerable groups, including setting binding targets at EU and national level, prioritising nature-based solutions and clean air measures, and ensuring adequate public funding. Cross-sectoral cooperation should also be strengthened at all levels of governance.