CARDIMED has contributed a comprehensive, practice–oriented response to the European Commission’s public consultation on the new European Climate Resilience and Risk Management integrated framework, showing how Nature–based Solutions and digital tools can help turn the framework’s ambitions into concrete action on the ground.
The aim of the Open Public Consultation is to build a more ambitious, comprehensive and coherent approach to climate resilience and preparedness at both national and EU levels, responding to calls from the European Parliament, Council and European Court of Auditors for bolder action.
During the public consultation, held from 1 December 2025 to 23 February 2026, the CARDIMED consortium consolidated its collective expertise to pool common feedback on how to build “climate resilience by design”, so that future climate risks are systematically taken into account in policies, investments and measures instead of being addressed only after impacts occur.
Through its contribution, CARDIMED aims to help shape a legislative proposal and supporting instruments that make EU and national climate resilience policies quicker to implement, more coherent, and better adapted to rapidly escalating climate risks by engaging with 6 key themes of the consultation.
- Climate resilience by design: CARDIMED’s input identifies the sectors that most urgently need to embed climate resilience in everyday decisions (such as cities, critical infrastructure and agriculture), points to the EU policies and laws where this principle should be hard‑wired, and highlights EU, national, regional and local rules that still hinder effective preparedness by explaining how they delay or weaken action on climate impacts.
- Common baseline climate trajectories/scenarios, and acceptable risk levels: CARDIMED shared insights on the use of common reference trajectories for global warming as a baseline for adaptation decisions across the EU and the Member States.
- Climate risk assessments: CARDIMED shared its perspective on the development of EU and national climate risk assessments covering the policy sectors most vulnerable to climate change. The consortium highlighted the importance of establishing common parameters at EU level (e.g. climate scenarios, assessment frequency, methodologies) to ensure that climate risk assessments are consistent, comparable, and aligned across Member States.
- Decision‑support tools for climate resilience: CARDIMED presented the climate data, digital services, and decision-support tools being developed within the project to improve access to clear, reliable, practical and coherent information on climate risk and adaptation solutions across regions and sectors.
- Protecting people and supporting regional and local action: CARDIMED shared recommendations on strengthening EU and national support for vulnerable populations, public health, and climate resilience in high-risk regions. The consortium also highlighted measures to empower regional and local authorities and communities to build resilience, while identifying key governance, financial, technical, and knowledge-related barriers that can limit effective local climate action.
- Finance and insurance: With the support of the MIP4Adapt Thematic Working Group “Financing Climate Action”, CARDIMED provided feedback on how integrating climate resilience into investments, public spending and procurement would help limit economic losses from climate events. The project also shared its views on the potential need for a European climate risk marketplace.
Further reading
The European Commission has published a factual summary report and statistical overview of the contributions received during the consultation, both of which are available online. Building on the consultation feedback and the accompanying impact assessment, the Commission is expected to present the proposed European Climate Resilience and Risk Management Integrated Framework in the second half of 2026, as part of the EU’s broader agenda to strengthen climate adaptation and resilience.
