The European Federation of Geologists (EFG) submitted a response to the European Commission’s public consultation on the European Climate Resilience and Risk Management Integrated Framework on 23 February 2026, reaffirming the central role of geoscience expertise in building a truly resilient Europe. Representing 50,000 geoscientists across Europe, the EFG welcomes the Commission’s initiative and emphasises that true climate resilience is impossible without a deep understanding of the Earth’s subsurface.
The consultation seeks to establish an integrated framework to help EU countries manage growing climate risks and reduce the economic losses associated with climate-related impacts. The EFG fully supports this objective and underlines that geologists are not merely technical experts. They are essential enablers of economic stability whose expertise transforms climate-proofing from a reactive cost into a proactive wealth-preservation strategy.
EFG highlights the scale of preventable losses linked to inadequate integration of geological knowledge into spatial planning and infrastructure design. Without urgent action, coastal flood losses alone could exceed €1 trillion per year by the end of the century. The 2013 Central European floods resulted in approximately €12 billion in economic losses, much of which could have been mitigated through mandatory geological assessments. Clay shrink-swell subsidence has caused over €20 billion in insured losses in France since 1989, a chronic and quantifiable risk that geotechnical modelling can anticipate and reduce. Currently, only 25% of climate-related losses are insured, a protection gap that authoritative geological data can help close.
The EFG urges the Commission to ensure the new framework moves beyond surface-level meteorology to incorporate ground stability, hydrogeological modelling, and subsurface data. It recommends making geological and geotechnical studies mandatory across all stages of public spending and procurement, ensuring coherence with existing legislation, including the Floods Directive and the Water Framework Directive, and recognising the European Geologist (EurGeol) title as a mandatory mark of professional competence across all 27 Member States.
EFG’s full response to the European Commission consultation on the European Climate Resilience and Risk Management Integrated Framework is available here: https://eurogeologists.eu/go/efg-response-2026-european-climate-resilience
