In July 2021, the European Climate Law entered into force. The importance of adaptation for a resilient society and the role of financial flows are key elements of this law. The law aims to ensure that all EU policies contribute to these goals and that all sectors of the economy and society play their part. The law aims to include measures to keep track of progress and adjust our actions accordingly.

Member States are required to develop and implement adaptation plans to strengthen resilience and reduce vulnerability to the effects of climate change. Progress will be reviewed every five years, in line with the global stocktake exercise under the Paris Agreement. Targets and indicators to measure progress and define the efforts needed to achieve the targets need to be formulated. To enable this process, the National plans need to be clear on their actions and measures: both in defining which budget is explicitly reserved for adaptation measures and plans; which costs and which benefits are assigned to adaptation and how these budgets are justified.

The consortium of Ramboll, CE Delft and Ecologic Institute supports the EEA with the study "Defining adaptation needs, counting adaptation finance and enabling actions at national and European level," which aims to provide knowledge products to feed into different EEA products and processes in the field of adaptation and adaptation finance. The project's first task explores how adaptation costs/finance are currently defined in EU and national adaptation plans and what can be improved to get a better overview of adaptation finance. The second task focuses on "Adaptation enabling activities". This task of the project aims to define and list enabling activities for adaptation (in line with the EU Taxonomy regulation), as well as possibilities for their further qualification.

Ecologic Institute is contributing to the first task, specifically on the topic of maladaptation and how to select cost-effective adaptation measures.