The European Climate Viewer turns the EU reference warming trajectory into a public hazard map. It is the right first screen for a region. It is not a floor-level flood depth or an indoor heat metric.
European Climate Viewer: The EU Warming Path as a Hazard Map
European Climate Viewer: The EU Warming Path as a Hazard Map
The question the European Climate Viewer answers is: how does the EU reference warming trajectory look, as a hazard, for this place?
It does not answer how deep the water would be on a particular floor, or how hot a particular room would get.
What it is
The Commission asked for the Viewer to support the EU Framework for Climate Resilience. The about page says it translates that framework’s common reference trajectory into map-based information on specific hazards, timeframes, and sectors, for public and private risk owners, without assuming a background in climate science.
It is developed in partnership between the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF), which runs the Copernicus Climate Change Service for the EU, and the European Commission, led by DG Climate Action. Other Commission services contribute, including through Destination Earth and the Joint Research Centre Risk Data Hub. The about page says the development is carried out by AtkinsRéalis and Lobelia Earth. The Viewer’s changelog dates version 1.0.0 to 26 October 2026, the day before the Commission presented the framework.
In the user guide, a session starts with three choices: a climate hazard, a global warming level and its time horizon on the reference trajectory, and a sector. You then move across the map and pick a location. The reference trajectory in the proposed law is 1.5°C by 2030, 2°C by 2050, and 3°C by the end of the 21st century, above the 1850–1900 average. The Commission’s press note describes the same long-term level as 3°C by 2100.
The site also points to Destination Earth storylines that replay a past extreme in today’s climate and in a world 2°C warmer, following the same weather pattern. That is still a hazard story, not a damage estimate for a building.
For a finer national or local tool, the Viewer itself sends you to the national tools list in the EEA Navigator of Climate Resilience Tools.
What not to expect
The about page says further data, including asset and population exposure and vulnerabilities, will be added over time. Until that exists, and even after it exists at regional scale, the Viewer is not:
- a floor-level flood depth
- an indoor heat metric
- a statement of residual risk after a measure
- a cost for an adaptation option
COM(2026) 720 says the Viewer will later grow from hazards toward exposure, vulnerability, and the effect of resilience measures. “Later” is not a number you can put in a permit file today.
The about page also says the Viewer uses the same underlying climate-hazard data and modelling framework as ClimateSET, the screening tool ECMWF developed with the European Investment Bank. Sharing a framework does not make either tool an asset-level loss model. ClimateSET has no public address yet.
Where to go next
Use the Viewer as the public baseline for a region. If the decision is which other tool covers this hazard and sector, open the Navigator. If it is what other places have already tried, open the Mission Solutions Explorer. If it is whether a project location even warrants a closer financial screen, wait for ClimateSET and treat it as a screen, not a valuation.
How these four sit together is in EU climate resilience tools and enterprise data. When the file has to go beyond the map, that is EU Climate Resilience Framework readiness, not another click in the Viewer.
Sources
- European Climate Viewer · About · User guide · Changelog
- European Commission, COM(2026) 720, section 3.1, 27 October 2026