EU climate plan falls short without dedicated funding, lawmaker says

The European Commission's ​proposed climate resilience framework risks becoming ​a "paper tiger" without dedicated EU ‌financing, ​a senior European Parliament lawmaker warned on Friday, echoing concerns from analysts and environmental groups.

The Commission ‌last month proposed a Climate Resilience Framework and a Climate Resilience Law to improve the bloc's preparedness for increasingly frequent climate-related disasters. Delara Burkhardt, a German member ‌of the European Parliament and deputy chair of the Socialists and Democrats ‌group, said the proposals lacked the financing needed to turn planning into concrete protection measures.

"This summer's heat was a wake-up call. Europe must protect its citizens better from ⁠the consequences ​of the ⁠climate crisis," Burkhardt said. The plans were "a step in the right direction," she said, but added ⁠that risk assessments alone would not shield communities. Policy analysts and campaigners have raised ​similar concerns.

Bruegel's Heather Grabbe, in an analysis this week, said the framework ⁠could shift EU policy from recovery to prevention, but would require dedicated adaptation money. WWF's ⁠European ​policy office said the framework lacked binding requirements for governments to factor climate risks into budgets and policies, while doing too little ⁠to close Europe's widening climate insurance protection gap.

The current long-term EU budget already ⁠contributes over €100 ⁠billion to climate resilience, a European Commission official told Reuters, adding "there is significant European money already proposed by the ‌Commission." ($1 = ‌0.8930 euros)