Climate change requires the rapid transformation of our economies and societies. Climate action, including achieving climate neutrality and enhancing climate resilience worldwide, is also at the heart of the Paris Agreement, the Sendai Framework on Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) and the Sustainable Development Goals.
Climate change is already amplifying the frequency and magnitude of extreme weather conditions and climate disasters, which have devastating effects on the development of a country and can destroy the achievements of long-standing initiatives.
Accelerating countries' transition to climate neutral, resource-efficient and climate risk resilient societies in line with the European Green Deal is key in the EU's international partnership programmes.
Improving capacity to manage climate change adaptation and disaster risk will reduce the economic, social and human toll on countries, particularly in the Global South, which is most affected by climate change and disasters, while many countries in the region contribute the least to global greenhouse gas emissions.
Our approach
The transition to climate neutrality and resilience needs to be global, inclusive and just. The Global Gateway was set up to meet this goal with investments in mitigation, climate change adaptation and resilience, as well as in clean energy.
Climate action under the Paris Agreement is country-led and country-driven and supported by our international partnership programme. The Global Gateway boosts our cooperation for green transformation – investing in key sectors like energy, industry, infrastructure, agriculture, water, forests and institutions is a necessity but also a major economic opportunity, especially in low- and middle-income countries.
Over the next years, we intend to scale-up the support to the implementation of the Paris Agreement with a specific focus on the sectors covered by countries’ Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and climate action plans to cut emissions, adapt to climate impacts and enhance resilience.
The EU and its Member States are the world’s biggest climate finance contributor, providing at least a third of the world’s public climate finance. Between 2021 and 2027, Team Europe will mobilise up to €300 billion of investments through the Global Gateway for sustainable and trusted connections that work for people and the planet.
Our programmes
Strengthening resilience is the objective of the 11th European Development Fund Disaster Risk Management programme in the ACP Group of States. With an investment of €100.5 million over six years, the action will deeply embed commitments to disaster risk reduction, adaptation to climate change and resilient recovery in ACP countries’ governance systems. It will build on previous investments by the EU and partners, presenting a once-in-a-decade opportunity to turn commitments made in 2015 in Sendai and Paris into lives saved, vital assets protected and resilient businesses across ACP.
The Climate Services and related Applications Programme (ClimSA) is a €85 million initiative of the Organisation of African, Caribbean and Pacific States (OACPS) and the European Union. It is an important investment aiming to strengthen the climate services value chain: from access to information, generation and provision of climate services to engagement and capacity of users to ensure utilisation of these services. ClimSA aims to support the climate information services value chain with technical and financial assistance, and infrastructure and capacity building support to improve wide access and use of climate information and applications for decision making processes at all levels, in the six regions of the OACPS through eight Regional Climate Centres.
The Global Climate Change Alliance Plus (GCCA+) is an EU flagship initiative which helps the world's most vulnerable countries to address climate change. GCCA+ has become a major climate initiative with over 70 projects in Africa, Asia, the Caribbean and the Pacific. It started in 2008 and will complete its projects in the beginning of 2023.
GCCA+ has worked to build climate resilience in three main areas of intervention
- mainstreaming climate change into poverty reduction and development efforts
- increasing resilience to climate-related stresses and shocks (promoting disaster-risk reduction)
- supporting the creation and implementation of concrete adaptation and mitigation strategies, plans and actions
In order for the EU Partnership Programme to be effective in climate action globally, we are also reinforcing the provision of technical assistance, knowledge and capacity development to partner countries in matters related to climate change mitigation, adaptation and disaster risks.
The EU Global Support Facility for Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) was established with this purpose in 2021; it is part of our effort to develop an integrated offer of technical assistance and knowledge in support of the external dimension of the Green Deal, covering climate action and priorities linked to NDCs: sustainable energy, circular economy, water, biodiversity and forests, green cities, sustainable agriculture and food systems, environment and climate change mainstreaming.