Climate change is no longer only an environmental or economic challenge—it is an escalating public health threat affecting every community in Europe. The European Commission’s recent consultation on climate resilience highlights how rising temperatures, extreme weather, air pollution, water scarcity, infectious disease spread, and disruptions to essential services are already straining health systems and disproportionately impacting vulnerable populations. Strengthening climate resilience “by design” across policies, infrastructure, and governance is therefore essential to safeguard population health, ensure continuity of care, protect critical supplies such as medicines, water, and energy, and reduce widening health inequalities. Our contribution to the consultation places public health at the centre of climate adaptation efforts and outlines concrete recommendations to build a healthier, fairer, and more climate‑resilient Europe.
Integrate Climate Resilience Across All Sectors
Ensure that critical infrastructure, especially health systems, integrates climate resilience by design to withstand future climate-related shocks.
Embed future climatic conditions into planning for water, energy, transport, land use, housing, and medicine supply chains.
Strengthen EU Legislative and Policy Coherence
Align EU directives and frameworks to remove fragmentation (e.g. strengthen and improve coherence between air quality and emission reduction legislation).
Prioritise climate resilience integration in infrastructure, particularly health‑system‑related legislation.
Establish EU‑Wide Climate Risk Frameworks
Develop common EU climate reference scenarios/trajectories and require all Member States and EU institutions to use them in risk assessments and planning.
Define acceptable levels of residual climate risk to promote consistency and prioritisation.
Improve Climate Risk Assessments
Require EU‑level and national-level climate risk assessments and monitoring that cover the most affected sectors, including health.
Harmonise climate risk assessment parameters (scenarios, time frames, methodologies, sector coverage).
Strengthen Adaptation Planning and Governance
Introduce robust obligations for EU institutions and Member States to prepare and regularly update adaptation strategies and plans, including climate health strategies and plans.
Require identification of risk owners responsible for addressing vulnerabilities across sectors.
Enhance Protection of Vulnerable Populations
Embed health equity into EU climate governance and ensure disaggregated data collection for monitoring impacts.
Ensure climate‑resilient housing, food and water security, early warning systems, and strengthened mental‑health and health‑system preparedness.
Support Regional and Local Action
Increase EU and national funding for local climate as well as climate-health adaptation.
Strengthen capacity-building for local authorities and require Member States to set up coordination platforms involving local stakeholders and vulnerable groups.
Improve access to specific, actionable risk data at regional and local levels.
Enhance Monitoring, Reporting and Evaluation
Develop a concise yet comprehensive set of performance indicators for climate adaptation.
Integrate climate resilience indicators into existing sectoral legislation to avoid duplication.
Strengthen — rather than simplify — monitoring to ensure early detection and rapid response.
Improve Climate Data, Tools and User Access
Develop an EU user-friendly, web-based, transparent climate resilience tool offering harmonised data, maps, downloadable reports, and links to adaptation solutions.
Prioritise clear language, visualisation, and AI-supported navigation for non‑experts.
Strengthen Health System Climate Resilience
Scale up climate-sensitive disease surveillance, early-warning systems, and all-hazard preparedness.
Invest in resilient, energy-efficient infrastructure, supply chain robustness, and climate‑health intelligence systems.
Boost Competitiveness and Innovation in Climate Resilience
Increase public and private funding, strengthen regulatory certainty, and improve access to specialised workforce and modern equipment.
Support development of new climate‑resilient health technologies, environmental monitoring systems, and risk modelling tools.
Expand Climate Resilience Finance and Insurance
Integrate climate resilience into public fiscal planning, procurement, and investment criteria.
