EU’S vulnerability to climate change impacts outside its borders

Climate change is leading to increased water scarcity and drought in many parts of the world. This has implications for the European Union (EU) because a lot of the goods consumed or used in the EU are produced abroad. This makes its economy dependent on water resources from beyond its borders.

As part of the IMPREX project, a work package entitled “Water Economy” has been mapping the EU’s global dependency on water resources outside its borders and assessing how water scarcity, drought, floods and climate change may disrupt supplies of key food crops that it imports. This information reveals where vulnerabilities to the EU’s food security and economic stability lie and identifies which food products may become more expensive or harder to find in Europe in the near and longer-term future.