EEB background paper on the EU climate resilience and risk management framework

Climate change is part of a triple planetary crisis of pollution, biodiversity loss and climate change, which are interconnected and tend to exacerbate each other. This paper outlines in detail the following key recommendations for the EU climate resilience and risk management framework:

• Maintain the WFD’s strength and resist efforts to weaken it, such as proposed new exemptions in pollutant regulations.

• Ensure full implementation of water, nature, soil, and forest laws to help restore the water cycle across all ecosystems.

• The European Commission must enforce existing laws, show political will, and act against Member States failing to meet the 2027 WFD targets.

• Monitor the use of WFD exemptions to ensure they are applied only in truly exceptional cases, as intended by the law.

• Increase enforcement staff capacity to handle persistent non-compliance and reduce legal backlogs and delays.

• Use interim legal measures to prevent irreversible environmental harm and explore early intervention in serious infringement cases.