Adversity to opportunity: How can Europe become more resilient to climate change?

Europe is facing bigger and bigger impacts of climate change, while also dealing with global crises. In a world shaped by uncertainty, resilience is vital – and from adversity also comes opportunity, as we’re seeing across the European Climate Pact community.

Feeling the effects of a volatile world

The crisis in the Middle East has shown that Europe must be more resilient to global shocks.

Businesses are now feeling the impacts of supply chain disruption, while people across Europe are facing higher energy and fuel bills, showing how quickly world events affect our daily lives.

The European Commission has estimated that since the escalation of the conflict, the EU has spent an additional €27 billion on energy imports due to higher prices.

“This is the second major energy crisis in the short span of four years. And its lesson should be clear for all: in a turbulent world like ours, we simply cannot be overdependent on imported energy,” President Ursula von der Leyen said on 29 April. “So the way forward is obvious: we must reduce our overdependency on imported fossil fuels and boost our home-grown, affordable, clean energy supply.”

At the same time, the impacts of climate change are accelerating. Europe is the fastest-warming continent, with 95% of it experiencing above-average annual temperatures in 2025. We’ve just had the second-warmest March on record, shortly after intense storms caused severe flooding across the Mediterranean in February. The costs and risks of these impacts of climate change are also rising all the time.

All this shows that Europe must act now. As the European Commission’s Director-General for Climate Action, Kurt Vandenberghe, explained at the Climate Pact’s annual Together in Action event, becoming more resilient and preparing for the future is at the heart of EU climate policy.

As well as reducing emissions and fighting the impacts of climate change, we need to prepare for what’s coming by building stronger systems right across society, from energy and infrastructure to local economies.

Resilience in action

Thankfully, people across the Pact community are doing just that.

As we heard at the European Climate Pact’s annual event, many communities are taking practical steps to become better prepared.

In one session, Pact Ambassador Carmen Marqués spoke about how the Spanish town of Paiporta, in Valencia province, is still recovering from the catastrophic floods in 2024.

“This showed our vulnerability. It also shows how important it is to be a resilient community, to be able to bounce back.”
Carmen Marqués, European Climate Pact Ambassador at Together in Action 2026

The floods weren’t a one-time event, either: this winter alone – in what’s normally the dry season – Spain had three times more rain than expected, showing how the climate is changing.

Valencia is now taking steps to better understand the risks and develop solutions to the climate crisis. It is among over 300 local and regional areas to have committed to upping their climate resilience by 2030 through the EU Mission on Adaptation to Climate Change.

Valencia’s approach is not just about responding to similar crises when they come. Its adaptation strategy is built on innovation and transformation, ranging from infrastructure upgrades, for example better planning where and how new buildings are built, to improving early-warning information systems, awareness-raising among citizens, and cooperation between different levels of decision-making.

The recent series of Climate Action Days – organised across Europe in the build-up to Together in Action 2026 – further showed how local action is helping build resilience on the ground:

In the village of Sveti Petar Orehovec, Croatia, locals planted a community orchard in which communities learn how to protect soil, water and trees in our rapidly changing climate.
In the town of Cieza, Spain, municipalities planted trees and created a butterfly garden to raise awareness about the importance of urban greening as a nature-based solution to climate change.
And in Brussels, Belgium, workshops advised on how to predict and deal with heatwaves, as well as reduce emissions and adapt to growing climate impacts in prominent tourist destinations.

Working together in local communities

As Director-General Vandenberghe said at Together in Action 2026, “innovation is not only about technological innovation, but also about social innovation, such as how to make communities work together”.

One practical way that people across Europe are working together to build resilience is by forming energy communities. These communities are a way for residents to join forces to invest in and manage their own renewable energy, putting power back in their hands – quite literally.

These communities help lower the risk of local disruption or sudden price hikes due to global events that are out of citizens’ control. This not only makes communities more resilient to external shocks, but also supports climate goals by using clean, homegrown energy sources.

Many examples of successful energy communities were shared at the annual Pact event, including from Belgium, Portugal and Spain. One such example is Brupower, Belgium, which aims to bring on board the whole community in the district of Anderlecht, Brussels, by organising informal gatherings involving people from different cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds.

“We want people to generate their own renewable energy”, explained Antonia Proka of Brupower, “to increase security and resilience in a concrete way”.

“We want to enable and empower the community to have the energy solution in their hands.”

“Everything has a ripple effect and increases the energy bills of all of us. Energy communities can have a big impact: we become the owners of energy and avoid fossil fuels. Now it is crucial that we own this so that we can reduce our dependence on volatile fuels.”
Francisca Costa, European Climate Pact Ambassador, at Together in Action 2026

How EU support is helping

Together in Action 2026 showed how local, regional and national climate action and resilience are closely linked to Europe’s bigger vision for energy security, economic stability and competitiveness.

Resilience has been a top priority for several years now, as the situation in the Middle East is not the first global shock that Europe has had to face. To deal with the COVID-19 crisis, the EU created NextGenerationEU. At the heart of this was the Recovery and Resilience Facility, which provided funding to make EU Member States’ economies stronger and better prepared for the future.

Then after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the EU launched REPowerEU to make Europe less dependent on Russian fossil fuels, secure energy supply, and produce more clean, renewable energy at home. Since then, solar energy production has doubled and around half of Europe’s electricity now comes from renewables. The EU is now intensifying its commitment to the clean energy transition by pushing towards electrification.

The new Social Climate Fund will also provide €86.7 billion over the next six years to help those who are struggling most due to the transition. This includes people who face higher energy and transport costs.

Moving from adversity to opportunity

The good news? Resilience also brings opportunity. It’s expected that the market for climate-resilient technologies could be worth €1 trillion by 2030, and the EU is building innovation, new technologies and expertise to become a global leader in this area.

People across Europe are developing innovative approaches to deal with climate change. For example, the EU Mission on Adaptation is helping communities test practical solutions ranging from wildfire-resilient landscapes in Spain to flood warning systems in Denmark.

A new plan for climate resilience and risk management is also coming later this year, which will cover all sectors. As Director-General Vandenberghe explained, this will help people “stop being climate ‘doomers’ and instead become optimists”, as a “single market for climate solutions and actions” will support growth across the continent.

“We do not take climate action only for the climate; we do it for security, prosperity, and competitiveness.”
Kurt Vandenberghe, Director-General for Climate Action at Together in Action 2026

This reflects a shift towards so-called resilience by design, built on preparation, adaptation and long-term thinking.

Get inspired by the Pact

If you missed Together in Action 2026, you can rewatch the live-stream recordings in the programme.

If you want to learn more about what others are doing and level up your own climate action, check out the Pact’s Get inspired page, including the Making an ImPact series.

And if you want to connect with others in your local community, including Pact Ambassadors and Partners, check out our interactive map.

Detaljer

Publikationsdato: 29. april 2026
Forfatter: Generaldirektoratet for Klima