News Archive

On 11 June 2026, Lithuania’s Parliament adopted the Climate Change Adaptation Law, establishing a legal framework for developing and implementing adaptation policy, managing climate-related risks, and collecting and providing relevant information. The law defines the responsibilities of national and municipal authorities, with municipalities required to prepare climate change adaptation plans by the end of 2030. The Lithuanian Hydrometeorological Service will serve as an expert centre, providing municipalities with methodological and technical support.

A new update of the case study on Nature-based Solutions (NbS) in schools to protect children from heat in Spain is available on Climate-ADAPT. Monitoring results showcase the general functioning of green roofs and facades over time with some shortcomings due to inappropriate irrigation and maintenance issues. Monitoring also allowed to suggest possible corrective measures and practical recommendations for ensuring long-term maintenance and effective replication in other sites.

The six winners of the 2026 ‘Blauer Kompass’ Federal Award for outstanding projects on climate change prevention and adaptation have been announced. The goal of the 'Blauer Kompass' competition is to showcase innovative, effective, and sustainable solutions for addressing the impacts of climate change. The awards went to projects that reflect the diversity of adaptation measures in Germany: an early warning system for heavy rainfall, a climate-resilient agricultural cultivation method, a training module for midwives on managing heat stress, an inspiring interactive exhibition for children and young people, and two school projects involving a tree-planting campaign and a food production facility. Each award comes with prize money of 25,000 euros. More information about the federal prize can also be found in English on this website: https://www.umweltbundesamt.de/en/themen/klima-energie/klimafolgen-anpassung/kompetenzzentrum-kompass/contest-blauer-kompass.

According to a mid-term assessment by the European Commission, 292 regional and local authorities have implemented climate adaptation measures already, whereas the goal of the EU Mission on Adaptation to Climate Change for 2030 has been to support at least 150 European regions, local authorities and communities to become climate resilient. Fortunately, all five EU Missions in Horizon Europe are delivering tangible positive results through scientific and technological innovation and thus contribute to drive systemic change.

This Joint Research Centre (JRC) shows that drought conditions have been deteriorating in central and eastern Europe. Alert conditions persist in central-eastern Europe and have worsened in western Europe. In the next months, a north-south water dipole is expected in Europe, with drier conditions in most of the central and northern regions and wetter than usual conditions in the Mediterranean areas. The report is part of a series of analytical reports on the analysis of drought events affecting Europe as well as the other regions of the world. These studies build on data and information retrieved and processed by the Copernicus Drought Observatories and is complemented with sections on impacts, large scale circulation, and other relevant factors.

The European Commission has put forward a new strategy which will ensure that remote European regions can fully realise their potential. They extend the EU’s presence across the globe and play a key geostrategic role. The strategy is built around four objectives, including the improvement of resilience and preparedness, taking into account the outermost regions' unique realities and constraints.

Slovakia is now among the successful applicants for projects funded under the EU LIFE programme. The project NatAdaptSK aims to build a comprehensive framework for putting the Slovak Republic's Climate Change Adaptation Strategy into practice, combining proven and innovative nature-based solutions across six key areas.

Climate change adaptation has a simple problem at its heart: authorities know they need to act. However, deciding exactly what to do and getting everyone to agree is hard. There is an overwhelming amount of data, a long list of possible measures, and many stakeholders to bring on board. The Flanders Environment Agency (VMM) presented at a partner meeting of the DISCO EU funded Interreg North Sea project an example of how digital tools can cut through that complexity: the Flemish Climate Portal.

A new UN Environment Programme spotlight report finds that as global temperature rise gets set to cross 1.5°C, pushing climate risks and impacts to dangerous new heights, the world must strive to return to below 1.5°C as soon as possible and simultaneously reduce the vulnerability of societies, communities and economies to climate impacts. The report finds that the world can achieve this goal by acting now to get on an ‘overshoot, peak, and decline’ pathway.

On June 25th, the EU funded REGILIENCE+ project, funded in relation to the EU Mission on Adaptation, launched its Open Training Session (OTS) series, Contributing to Climate Resilience, with a first webinar focusing on agriculture. The five-webinar series is designed to support regional and local authorities (RLAs) and supporting organisations by promoting knowledge exchange, disseminating tools, solutions and case studies, and fostering dialogue and peer learning across sectors to strengthen climate resilience. To see the webinar recording on the website, please accept cookies.

The WaterAdapt, an Interreg Europe initiative, identifies 20 best practices to tackle water-related climate risks and foster resilience, identified through interregional learning.These best practices demonstrate how planning, technology, governance, and public engagement can build climate resilience, water security, and sustainable development, addressing challenges like flood protection, groundwater management, coastal resilience, and water reuse.

EU Member States have recently submitted their draft national restoration plans to the European Commission als part of the EU Nature Restoration Regulation. The nature restoration plans will enable Member States to organise and scale up restoration action in a way that supports healthier ecosystems, and thereby strengthens resilience to drought, heatwaves, floods and wildfires as well.

The EU funded REGILIENCE+ project, linked to the EU Mission on Adaptation, published a factsheet on climate resilient agriculture about the challenges and practical solutions to adapt agriculture sectors to the changing climate.

The daily global average sea surface temperature (SST) has reached its highest level on record, exceeding the previous record set in March 2024. The Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) confirmed the record, with a temperature of 21.1°C on 22 August, exceeding the previous record of 21.09°C. The long-term rise in ocean temperatures has far reaching consequences for both communities and ecosystems.

The European Commission has launched an open call to collect feedback from stakeholders as input to the evaluation of the European Environment Agency (EEA) and the European Environment Information and Observation Network (EIONET), including on the work on adaptation to climate change. It will be carried out in line with the Commission's Better Regulation initiative and the common approach on EU decentralised agencies. The evaluation will cover the period from 2022 to 2026. Feedback can be provided by 21 September.

After the large increase in mortality due to the heatwaves in June and July 2026 in Europe, the European Regional Hub of the Planetary Health Alliance and more than 80 organisations have signed the European Declaration on Heat and Health, calling on the EU to put health at the centre of its climate policy. The declaration calls for legally binding adaptation obligations, measurable health targets, and a European Heat-Health Action Plan with an emergency fund for hospitals, care homes, nurseries and schools.

As Europe faces another summer of extreme heat, water scarcity and drought, at the 17th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), the EU will work with partners to shift from a reactive, crisis-based approach to drought towards proactive drought risk management and resilience. This means investing in preparedness, early warning, risk reduction and sustainable land and water management before droughts become humanitarian, economic or environmental crises.

Through a cooperation agreement between the Banat Water Basin Administration (BWBA) and the Timiş County Council, the county becomes a Replicating Region within the Horizon Europe funded LAND4CLIMATE project. This is a significant step towards scaling up experience and results that BWBA will achieve in the pilot area at county level. Nature-based Solutions (NBS) developed and tested in the project can be adapted for implementation in other parts of the county where local conditions allow and even further to other counties.

While the immediate focus is on responding to the emergencies with firefighting helicopters, electric fans and shallow water vessels this summer, the European Commission illustrates in a few examples how Horizon Europe is equipping communities across Europe with the knowledge, tools and effective solutions to adapt to the increasing occurrence of climate change related extreme events.

The Joint Research Centre announced that drought affects large parts of Europe since spring, with forecast reporting warmer and drier weather into September, with continued risk of heatwaves. Timely information on precipitation, soil moisture, vegetation and river flows helps authorities prepare for and respond to drought impacts.

Ongoing wildfires have triggered one of the biggest evacuation operations in Europe, displacing more than 300,000 people in France and Spain. As part of the EU's preparedness measures under the EU civil protection mechanism, ahead of this year's wildfire season, firefighting teams from other European countries had already been pre-positioned in France and Spain before the fires began. It allowed them to reinforce national responders immediately.

The European Central Bank (ECB) is expanding its climate risk rules to reduce the financial value it assigns to corporate bank loans. It will apply if the borrowing company is highly vulnerable to green transition shocks. This new policy is set to take effect by late 2027, It applies additional asset value reductions of up to 5% based on a company's sector, climate (policy) exposure, and loan maturity.

As the Mediterranean faces growing climate risks, 43 countries have launched the development of the region's Climate Action Plan under the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM). This will enable practical cooperation for the political commitments to enhanced climate ambition, adaptation and resilience, mobilisation of climate finance, sustainable management of natural resources, and a just transition in the Mediterranean.

Based on seasonal climate forecasts, an El Niño occurrence this year is virtually certain and has a very high likelihood of being very strong and even turning into an unprecedented event, peaking between December 2026 and February 2027. A new JRC report explores the plausible scenarios of El Niño evolution, together with its effects on the global climate, food prices, exposed people, displacement, and humanitarian risks.