Budget 2026: Will climate change adaptation be threatened by financial restrictions?

This independent research institute, itself more than half funded by public funds, looked at the resources allocated to this adaptation: both "vulnerability reduction", "crisis management" and "damage management" linked to climate change.

"The 2020-2024 period was indeed one of real attention to the issue […]. Adaptation has - like ecological planning more broadly - benefited from post-Covid recovery policies," the I4CE is pleased to say.

In March, the government presented its third National Climate Change Adaptation Plan (PNACC-3), designed to prepare transport, energy infrastructure, and agriculture for a 4°C rise in France by the end of the century. However, the I4CE echoes the High Council for Climate's estimate that "the funding known at this stage for PNACC-3 is insufficient compared to the estimated needs."

"The more recent period - marked by budgetary constraints - casts significant uncertainty over the future dynamics," according to the authors of the report "Adapting France to +4°C: means, needs, financing."

And while "some progress seems well established, others could be called into question," they argue. The Green Fund (which supports local authorities) saw its resources decline in 2025. The I4CE is concerned about "the end of a cycle of investment aid policies without any follow-up planned" and the decline in certain expenditures, with "a net reduction in the credits initially planned" or even "cancellations of credits."