How to build climate resilience and narrow the climate protection gap: conclusions from the Climate Resilience Dialogue

Average global temperatures continue to rise past all meteorological records. Severe weather events and the long-term effects of climate change are increasingly impacting people, businesses, economies, and infrastructures at large. Only around a quarter of climate-related damages have been insured in the past in the EU, though the size and specificities of this climate protection gap vary across Member States. Climate change can aggravate the difference between economic losses and insured losses from the materialisation of climate-related risks.

The European Commission convened a Climate Resilience Dialogue in November 2021 to facilitate an open exchange on ways to address the climate protection gap and increase climate resilience in the EU, with a focus on climate adaptation. The Dialogue brought together stakeholders such as public authorities, including supervisors, consumer organisations, and the insurance industry.

In July 2024, the Dialogue delivered its Final Report, which brings together insights from the discussions and puts forward actions and good practices that are conducive to building climate resilience and narrowing the climate protection gap.

The Report provides insights on ways to raise climate risk awareness, improve risk assessments and facilitate the implementation of risk reduction measures. It also explores the potential for public-private partnerships (PPP) in insurance and examines the pros and cons of other insurance-based solutions that could address the climate protection gap. Finally, it makes a deep-dive into the main climate-related risks in Europe, covering floods, wildfires, heatwaves, droughts and storms.

The actions set forth in the report can be implemented by different stakeholders and are a collective contribution to individual and community resilience against various hazards in a variety of ways: by promoting risk awareness, preparedness, and proactive measures in the face of climate change.

While the proposed actions require stakeholder groups with primary responsibility to take the lead, the buy-in and coordinated efforts of other stakeholder groups are essential.

The European Commission welcomes the report and will reflect on the solutions presented in the report in its next mandate. Climate-related risks and their impacts are a shared challenge, and the competitiveness of the European economy and prosperity of our society will, to a high degree, depend on our ability to increase climate resilience and preparedness. Building climate resilience is a shared responsibility and the findings of the report provide a good overview of what different groups of stakeholders can do to achieve it.