For decades, the European Union has led the world in implementing policies designed to cut emissions, creating the world’s most important price on carbon and crafting the rules of the road for a wide range of regulatory efforts. Now, as the costs of climate change become increasingly difficult to ignore, the bloc is increasingly focusing on adaptation. In a Sept. 8 interview, Teresa Ribera, who oversees climate policy in the EU as executive vice-president of the European Commission, told me that the growing costs of the effects of climate change mean that policymakers need to consider adaptation as a key focus of economic policy.
There is no private insurance that can cope with all these costs,” she said when we met at the EU Delegation office in New York. Most obviously, it signals the harsh reality that global emission reductions efforts have failed to forestall the effects of climate change. It's also a wake-up call.
A focus on adaptation from policymakers in Europe—and eventually elsewhere—should help protect the economy from the growing risks of climate change. But it will also force businesses and governments to confront costs they have largely been able to defer. This is good for long-term economic wellbeing, but it may come as an immediate shock for the unprepared.
At the heart of the EU’s approach is a new adaptation framework due for release later this month. At first glance, it can sound like just another white paper identifying approaches to dealing with climate risk. It calls for a common approach for member states to measure climate risk, principles to ensure that infrastructure is built with future climate conditions in mind, and efforts to identify the most vulnerable places in Europe.
Yet, looking at what EU authorities have released in advance, it is worth underlining that this will not be just a white paper. The package is expected to include proposed legislation that, among other things, could require EU member states to develop climate resilience plans as a prerequisite to funding. And, Ribera says, the framework may eventually serve as the basis for more prescriptive future regulation.
While the EU’s adaptation work has been long coming, this past summer provided additional public attention and pressure. Record heat swept much of the continent, leading to tens of thousands of excess deaths. Wildfires encroached on major European cities, a once unthinkable threat.
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