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.
The EU’s turn to adaptation is an important marker of this climate moment. 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.
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. “There may be certain regulations that could be increasingly tougher,” she told me.
The aggregate numbers are just as shocking. Between 2021 and 2024, climate-related extreme events led to more than €200 billion in economic losses in the EU, according to figures from the European Environment Agency. Much of those losses were uninsured, leaving the losses to be absorbed by governments, businesses, or households. Without intervention, those numbers will only grow as extreme events worsen. Ribera says the EU is working with insurers to expand coverage where it makes sense while also using public and private financing to cover risks that cannot be covered by insurance alone.
Ribera insists that this misunderstands the European perspective. The long-term goals remain the same. Indeed, earlier this year the EU created a legally binding 2040 emissions reduction target. “There is this strong temptation from some to say, ‘Okay, let’s give up,’ or ‘Let’s lower the bar,’” she told me. But, she argued, Europe instead needs to proceed in a “humble and flexible manner” while “keeping the sense of direction, the commitments, [and] the principles.”
Anyone who trains their eyes too closely on one policy adjustment risks missing the forest for the trees.
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