Editor’s note: accepting adaptation
The latest edition of our Sustainable Views newsletter
Dear reader,
Former European Commission climate spokesperson Tim McPhie wrote recently on LinkedIn about how uncomfortable he felt speaking about adaptation to climate change. The latest State of the Climate report published today shows we have no choice in Europe but to adapt as floods and temperature extremes do increasing damage to people, business and nature.
“I spent five years as a spokesperson for EU climate policies and I was never really comfortable talking about climate adaptation. I guess it always felt like accepting defeat,” admitted McPhie. “I used to think talking about adapting meant accepting we wouldn’t be able to stop or limit climate change. And it felt like giving a free pass to those who didn’t even want to try.”
The European State of the Climate report from the Copernicus Climate Change Service and the World Meteorological Organization confirms Europe as the fastest-warming continent and the devastating impacts of climate change happening here. Severe storms and widespread flooding killed at least 335 and affected an estimated 413,000 people in 2024. Heat stress, cold stress, glacier loss, forest fires all broke records last year with massive costs.
“This report found damage from storms and flooding across Europe in 2024 cost at least €18bn,” says Dr Ben Clarke, research associate at the Centre for Environmental Policy, Imperial College London. “Every year, European countries are having to reach deeper into their pockets to respond to weather disasters.
“It is painfully clear the cost of acting on climate change is far lower than the cost of inaction. Cutting emissions and investing in climate adaptation will save lives and protect economies.”
However, campaigners fear EU policymakers are not listening properly to such advice. The bloc is still to come out with an official 2040 emissions reduction target. And while leaders continue to back a 90 per cent reduction pledge, increasingly, as per the German coalition agreement last week, this is littered with caveats.
Like in Berlin, lawmakers in Brussels are also exploring various ways the target could be made easier to meet, including by allowing more flexibility between EU sectors and relying on international offsets and carbon removals.
On LinkedIn today, Mats Engström, senior policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, likewise warns against EU governments linking discussions on the 2040 targets with revision of various “Fit for 55” legal acts — the way Europe plans to reduce emissions by 55 per cent by 2030.
“That would in my view be unfortunate, since it would send a negative signal to other parts of the world as well as to innovative European companies,” says Engström. “Scheduled reviews of the Fit for 55 legal acts should be done through the normal legislative procedure, not through detailed conclusions at the European Council level.”
Boosting renewables is key to meeting all these targets. The State of the Climate reports shows this is one area where the EU is making positive progress, with the proportion of electricity generation by renewables reaching a record high in 2024, at 45 per cent.
Recalibrating, reforestation and Republicans
On Sustainable Views today, we bring you three opinion pieces that will hopefully stimulate some discussion among readers.
First up is Paul Marushka, chief executive of Sphera and author of Sustainable Success: How Businesses Win as a Force for Good (Rivertowns Books, 2025). He argues legislation such as the EU’s omnibus bill does not represent a turnabout in political and corporate sustainability commitments, but rather a recalibration.
“The business community has raised genuine concerns about the ambitious scope of these regulations, particularly regarding their costs and feasibility for small and medium-sized enterprises,” writes Marushka. “It is important to understand that acknowledging these concerns does not mean abandoning sustainability. It signifies an exploration of how to implement sustainability in a practical and scalable way.”
Meanwhile, Ramboll biodiversity consultant Samantha Willis sets out how she believes the almost $1tn nature finance gap can be closed.
Central to her message is the call for governments to offer “robust incentives, including subsidies and tax breaks, to make nature-positive investments attractive and competitive, and encourage private investors to allocate more resources towards environmentally beneficial projects such as reforestation”.
“The public sector must also create a supportive environment through cohesive policies and regulations,” adds Willis.
And, since it is impossible to write a newsletter at the moment that does not mention the US, we have a piece by Oxford Smith School researcher Noah Mihan that examines what is likely to happen to the Inflation Reduction Act and US climate policy more widely, even after Trump has departed the White House.
Until tomorrow,
Philippa
Philippa Nuttall is the editor of Sustainable Views