The impacts of climate change are already affecting communities, ecosystems and economic activities across Europe. As adaptation efforts increase, policymakers require better evidence on the benefits of adaptation measures and the costs of failing to act. Building this evidence base is essential for supporting informed investment and policy decisions on climate resilience.

This project supports the European Environment Agency (EEA) in advancing quantitative knowledge on the benefits of climate change adaptation across the EU27. The work focuses on applying the Triple Dividend of Resilience (TDR) concept, which captures not only avoided climate-related losses but also wider economic, social and environmental benefits generated by adaptation measures.

The project aims were to compile and assess existing evidence on adaptation benefits, develop a structured dataset covering different types of adaptation actions, and explore how available evidence can be used to derive indicative estimates at EU level. Given current limitations in the evidence base, the work also identified data gaps, methodological challenges and priorities for future research.

Main Activities

• Review and extract quantitative evidence on the benefits of climate adaptation measures from scientific literature, reports and case studies.
• Develop a database of adaptation measures, including information on costs, benefits, sectors, hazards, geographical coverage and TDR benefit categories.
• Assess the quality, robustness and reliability of available evidence and document methodological limitations.
• Explore approaches for upscaling available data to derive indicative EU27-level estimates of adaptation benefits.
• Produce a report summarising findings, methodological assumptions, uncertainties and future research needs.

The project considers evidence from EU Member States as well as selected international studies where relevant. The work combines literature review, case study analysis, database development and a quantitative assessment. Particular attention is given to the challenges of measuring and comparing the different dividends of resilience, especially wider economic and societal benefits that are often less well documented than avoided damages.

The project is carried out by a consortium led by Ramboll, together with Ecologic Institute and the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA).

Ecologic supported the collection and assessment of evidence on adaptation benefits, contributed to the development of the adaptation benefits database, and provided methodological input on evaluating adaptation measures across sectors and regions.