Climate risk to resilience: shaping a water-smart Europe

The onset of climate change is bringing renewed urgency to adaptation efforts. Notably, the first European Climate Risk Assessment (EUCRA), a comprehensive analysis of climate-related hazards and vulnerabilities facing Europe, was published by the European Environment Agency in March 2024, identifying 36 major climate risks across ecosystems, food, health, infrastructure, and the economy. Among the report’s findings, water is a cross-cutting issue, starkly highlighting the need for better water management and resilience in the face of climate change impacts such as floods, droughts and water scarcity.  

The EUCRA report is widely acknowledged as one of the most influential reports ever issued by the agency. Evidence of the impact in European policymaking circles is clear: in December 2024, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s mission letter tasked environment commissioner Jessika Roswall with bringing forward a water resilience strategy ‘to strengthen water security in Europe’. In June 2025, the European Commission duly published the first-ever European Water Resilience Strategy, broadly aimed at i) restoring and protecting the water cycle, ii) building a water-smart economy, and iii) ensuring access to clean and affordable water. The support provided under the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) for helping farmers to transition to a more sustainable agri-food system contributes towards these goals.

With regard to the first objective, the Strategy notes that successful restoration of the water cycle’s quantity and quality will depend on effective implementation of the existing EU framework for freshwater, including the Water Framework Directive, the Flood Management Directive, and the Nature Restoration Regulation. Additionally, it highlights the ‘need to step up our efforts to improve water retention on land’.

With agriculture accounting for 51% of total water consumption in the EU, the agri-food system - and the CAP - have a crucial role to play in achieving the second aim of the strategy: building a water-smart economy. In addition, the agricultural sector is highly vulnerable to the water-related impacts of climate change, which highlights the need for adaptive strategies and resilient practices to safeguard both food security and water resources. Land management, particularly in rural areas, is the focus here. In fact, sustainable agriculture and forest management are major drivers of water and climate resilience, offering protection against droughts and floods. In addition, the theoretical water-saving potential for the agricultural sector in terms of water abstraction reduction is estimated to be between 5 and 20%.

However, a water-smart approach is about more than managing water quantity; maintaining good water quality is equally important. Agricultural practices such as nutrient management, cover cropping, conservation tillage, riparian buffers, and efficient irrigation help reduce erosion, runoff, and nutrient or pesticide pollution. Restoring wetlands and effectively managing livestock or manure also help filter contaminants before they reach waterways. The Vision for Agriculture and Food (2025) further underlines the importance of water quality and availability for food security.

In terms of translating policy into practice, the Water Resilience Strategy notes that the CAP and the national CAP Strategic Plans can, if used effectively, provide essential support for “sustainable agricultural practices and investments in water efficiency, circularity and improve water retention, whilst curbing nutrient and pesticide pollution”.

Certainly, the results from early adopters are impressive: a Dutch CAP-funded knowledge-sharing and behavioural change project aimed at improving water quality by reducing agricultural pollution from bulb and flower production farms successfully cut pesticide losses by 75%, alongside a reduction in incidents of breached water quality standards. Such projects bring multiple benefits: this major vegetable producer in Slovakia recycled water and modernised irrigation to achieve a 33% savings in water consumption, and saved about 30% of the cost of fertilisers.

In particular, water efficiency is ‘key and must come first’ according to the Water Resilience Strategy, which is accompanied by a Recommendation on the application of the ‘water efficiency first principle’, and sets out guiding principles for Member States for decision-making and investments based on prioritisation in the way water demand and supply are managed, including a target to enhance water efficiency by at least 10% by 2030 and encouraging Member States to set their own targets, based on their national circumstances. Investments in the promotion of water-smart agricultural practices and advancing nature-based solutions are examples of interventions to be performed to reach this target.

The Water Resilience Strategy strongly recommends that ‘Member States make maximum use of the possibilities afforded by the CAP’. Given the importance of the Strategy – and of the core topic of water resilience - Lisa Haller and Kaley Hart, policy analysts at the European CAP Network, are coordinating a Thematic Group (TG) on Improving Water Resilience in Rural Areas through the CAP. The primary focus of the TG will be on water quantity: managing demand, availability and examining the role of nature-based solutions.

“We hope that the Thematic Group will be an opportunity for a wide range of stakeholders to share their experiences of using the CAP to date, to improve water resilience and look at what other opportunities there might be to increase action in different parts of the EU”. Kaley Hart, Policy analyst, EU CAP Network.

Relevant projects gathered in the EU CAP Network’s Good Practices database include AQUAFARM’s use of technology to optimise water use in the Spanish livestock sector; nature-based solutions for water retention and flood protection in Czechia; and a demonstration of the importance of broad stakeholder engagement in innovation and cooperation for water and soil health in the Netherlands.

Lisa Haller explains: “The CAP provides an important funding source for Member States to use to fund actions that improve the water resilience of rural areas, whether through investments to reduce demand or increase the efficiency of water use (rainwater harvesting, water re-use, less water-intensive crops) or by encouraging nature-based solutions to improve water retention, such as supporting the maintenance, restoration or creation of hedgerows, trees and woodland, wetlands and floodplains. There’s huge potential – and I’m looking forward to exploring with this group the full range of CAP interventions that could be used for water resilience.”

Updates on the work of the Thematic Group on Improving Water Resilience in Rural Areas through the CAP are available on the TG page, which is regularly updated, along with other useful resources that can be found on the EU CAP Network’s website.