{"id":121097,"date":"2026-10-27T14:41:52","date_gmt":"2026-10-27T13:41:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eeb.org\/?p=121097"},"modified":"2026-10-27T14:42:41","modified_gmt":"2026-10-27T13:42:41","slug":"climate-resilience-law-names-nature-based-solutions-but-fails-to-make-them-europes-first-line-of-defence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eeb.org\/de\/climate-resilience-law-names-nature-based-solutions-but-fails-to-make-them-europes-first-line-of-defence\/","title":{"rendered":"Climate resilience law names nature-based solutions, but fails to make them Europe\u2019s first line of defence"},"content":{"rendered":"
The European Commission\u2019s proposed Climate Resilience package unveiled today requires the EU and Member States to \u201cpromote nature-based solutions and ecosystem-based adaptation\u201d in their resilience plans. But it does not make them a priority, and sets no dedicated targets, monitoring mechanisms or funding for them, the Living Rivers Coalition (LRE) warned today. Without such requirements, Europe risks overlooking some of its most effective tools for building climate resilience.<\/div>\n
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Nature-based solutions, such as restoring wetlands to slow down and store rainwater, using practices to help soils retain water and reduce erosion, or protecting coastal dunes to buffer storms are cheaper, faster and bring countless other benefits for climate mitigation, public health and biodiversity.<\/div>\n
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The Commission\u2019s own call for evidence ranked nature-based solutions as the \u201cdefault first line of defence\u201d among stakeholders\u2019 top five priorities. The proposal recognises nature-based solutions, but not in that role.<\/div>\n

The Commission has also failed to publish its announced guidance on climate-resilient landscapes. The LRE coalition urges the Commission to publish it without any further delay.<\/p>\n

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Claire Baffert, Senior Policy Officer for Water and Climate Change Adaptation at the WWF European Policy Office,<\/strong> said:<\/p>\n

\u201cThis summer has shown how helpless we are when our landscapes lose their grip on water, leaving too little to grow crops or keep rivers flowing. After the weather extremes we have witnessed, it is shocking that the Commission stops at requiring Member States to promote nature-based solutions, rather than making them the foundation of Europe\u2019s climate resilience strategy.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Sergiy Moroz, Head of Nature at the European Environmental Bureau (EEB),<\/strong>\u00a0said:<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile we welcome the acknowledgement of the role that nature-based solutions can play in making the EU more climate resilient in the draft law proposed today, we are concerned that, without clear targets and implementation mechanisms, this will remain a commitment on paper. It will be up to the co-legislators to ensure that these measures are backed by adequate EU funding, improved monitoring and greater sectoral policy coherence especially with Common Agricultural Policy.\u201d\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

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The coalition welcomes the timely shift from responding to disasters to preventing them, including a common reference warming trajectory (3\u00b0C by 2100) on which risk assessments and plans must be based, in line with scientific advice from the European Scientific Advisory Board on Climate Change.<\/p>\n

The LRE coalition calls on the European Parliament and Member States to strengthen the legislative proposal during the upcoming co-decision negotiations. Nature-based solutions must become the first line of defence against the worsening impacts of climate change, through their systematic prioritisation in EU and national adaptation planning and backed by commensurate EU funding.<\/p>\n

ENDS.<\/p>\n

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Notes to editors<\/strong><\/p>\n

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