Europe’s adaptation policies advance, but stronger action is needed to address growing climate risks

Top risks

In 2025, EU Member States, Iceland, Switzerland and Türkiye reported heatwaves, floods, droughts and heavy precipitation as the most frequently occurring acute climate hazards, consistent with the data reported during the last review in 2023. Chronic hazards remain dominated by changing temperatures and changes in water supply. An increasing number of countries reported water scarcity as a hazard, pointing to evolving risk profiles and intensified challenges in 2025.

Agriculture and food was the most frequently reported key affected sector by climate change followed by the health, biodiversity, forestry and energy sectors, reflecting a broadening recognition of sectoral vulnerability. Overall, in comparison with 2023, countries reported more affected sectors, indicating a growing awareness about and pressures from climate risks. These findings underpin the need for robust and up-to-date knowledge on climate risks to guide evidence-based and preventative adaptation planning.

The EEA climate adaptation check-up also found that climate risk assessments across member countries are also advancing, albeit different in their scope and ambition. Good news is that countries are increasingly aligning with the approach taken in the EEA's European Climate Risk Assessment (EUCRA) which was published in 2024.

As extreme weather becomes more common and economic losses continue to rise, better planning and implementation of adaptation actions to strengthen Europe's climate resilience and preparedness is essential. Insights from the EUCRA demonstrate that proactive, evidence-based adaptation is needed to protect ecosystems, people, economy and infrastructure from escalating risks while safeguarding Europe's competitiveness, security and prosperity.

Other key findings

• Limited information on implemented actions and their effectiveness hinders forming an understanding of Europe's progress on adaptation and climate resilience.

• Countries face common barriers: data gaps, weak decision-making tools, unclear roles and responsibilities, limited funding and insufficient local capacities.

• Monitoring and reporting are slowly improving. However, robust evaluation and learning frameworks remain a challenge, limiting the ability to assess adaptation action outcomes and inform future adaptation policies.

Other relevant publications

The EEA today also published its annual Trends and projections in Europe report, which details progress made in meeting the EU's ambitious climate and energy targets. Both are being released at the same time with the European Commission State of the Energy Union and Climate Action Progress Report 2025.

Background

This briefing is part of an ongoing EEA series exploring collective European progress towards climate resilience, providing insights into how national adaptation policies and actions continue to evolve across Europe. This third EEA assessment of progress towards climate resilience is based on national reports on adaptation actions submitted to the European Commission under the Regulation on the Governance of the Energy Union and Climate Action. Where possible, the briefing compares the latest information with previous reporting cycles and includes voluntary submissions as well from Iceland, Switzerland and Türkiye to the EEA.