Standardising and supporting climate services for climate adaptation

Expected Outcome:

The successful proposal will support the implementation of the EU Mission on Adaptation to Climate Change and the upcoming European Climate Adaptation Plan. Projects are expected to contribute to all of the following outcomes:

• The methodology for identifying, selecting and consolidating global and regional reference climate data sets and scenarios is advanced and their consistent use across the EU in relation to climate adaptation is supported.
• Standardisation and quality of climate services across the EU are improved, and their uptake is enhanced.
• Climate services and best practices are used effectively to inform climate adaptation policies and decisions

Scope:

Rationale

As climate risks intensify, the demand for tailored and effective climate services is growing. However, despite their increasing adoption, the lack of sufficient regulation can compromise quality assurance and consistency of climate services, leading to poor decision-making, limited use in policy, and underdeveloped markets, ultimately resulting in maladaptation.

In its Communication on Managing climate risk, the European Commission announced its intention to ask European Standardisation Organisations to develop new standards on climate services and consider climate adaptation into European standards for the design of infrastructure with a lifespan exceeding 30 years.

This topic supports the Commission Communication and aims to enhance the uptake of trustworthy, user-centric and accessible climate services. Two key objectives are targeted to that effect: 1) consolidating and promoting the consistent use of quality-assured reference global and regional climate data sets and scenarios, and 2) standardizing and streamlining climate service practices to support informed decision-making and policy development for climate adaptation, considering regional and local specificities, as well as capacity-building needs.

In the context of this topic, standardization encompasses technical, procedural and performance standards^[1].

Activities of the project

The proposals should address all of the following objectives:

1^st objective : reference climate data sets and scenarios for standardised climate services

Proposals should contribute to processes standardising climate services through reference climate data sets and scenarios to be used in all EU member states and at various scales (continental, national, regional). Particular attention should be paid to the consistency and harmony of continent-wide solutions with developments at country level where appropriate.

The work should address all of the following aspects:

• Advance innovative and robust methodologies to identify, select, distil and consolidate consistent global and regional reference climate data sets and scenarios with their associated uncertainties to be clearly communicated. This should be done in close collaboration with end-users, to ensure their operational relevance and usability in adaptation decision-making across the EU. These references should be based on appropriate available observations, (re)-analyses and simulations from the main EU and/or international initiatives (e.g. CMIP, CORDEX, DestinE) using quantifiable and traceable approaches;
• The proposed solution should incorporate a mechanism for regular updates to the underlying climate scenarios, to ensure that selected climate projections remain aligned with the latest updates on emission scenarios and available scientific information;
• Incorporate the above methodologies and mechanisms into the standardization of climate services.

2^nd objective : standardizing and streamlining climate service for decision and policy making in adaptation

Working closely with European Standard Organisations (such as CEN-CENELEC and others), finance institutions (such as European Investment Bank), end-users and other relevant entities as appropriate, actions should address all of the following aspects:

• Support the standardization of climate services, with special consideration for compound and other complex climate risks across temporal (multi-year to multidecadal) and spatial scales (local to regional);
• Promote and demonstrate the use of pilot standardized climate services in key adaptation-related areas, assessing and integrating quality-assured climate information into decision-making. This should be in line with the adaptation objectives of the Paris Agreement and could include for example:
  • Climate finance proofing processes and tools to support regulated institutions to adhere to the EU Taxonomy Regulation adaptation objectives;
  • Climate resilience of (public and private) investments in the built environment and critical infrastructure from design to delivery and exploitation;
  • Other sectors (e.g. health, agriculture, energy, water management, insurance, natural environment) if properly justified.

Links to the Mission and to other projects and initiatives

Actions should build on knowledge from existing climate service research projects and explore synergies with ongoing initiatives funded by EU and national programmes (in particular Copernicus and Destination Earth).

Actions should include a mechanism and the resources to establish operational links and collaboration with the Mission Implementation Platform, and other relevant programmes. Projects funded under this topic will be expected to participate in the Mission Community of Practice and to share relevant knowledge to feed the work of the project stemming from HORIZON-MISS-2026-01-CLIMA-02.

Applicants should acknowledge these elements and already account for them in their proposal, making adequate provisions in terms of resources and budget to engage and collaborate with the Mission.

[1] See for instance the key messages on standardization by Climateurope2