UNIFE Climate Resilience Vision Paper

The climate crisis increasingly affects the European railway system through more frequent and severe extreme weather events that disrupt infrastructure, operations, and supply chains.

In anticipation of the European Commission’s “climate resilience framework,” expected on 28 October 2026, the UNIFE Sustainable Transport Committee (STC) decided to prepare a UNIFE vision paper on A Climate-Resilient Rail Industry for Europe’s Future, focusing on a key dimension that remains underrepresented: the role of industrial capabilities and product design in achieving system-wide resilience.

The vision paper is divided into 5 parts:

1. The rail industry’s contribution to system-level resilience, focusing on the issues raised by climate change and extreme events, and therefore why the rail supply industry’s role is crucial to solve them.
2. Rail technologies as key enablers of climate adaptation, focusing on solutions developed by the rail supply industry to enhance climate resilience, which can be developed and implemented only if R&I for railways continues to be funded, with the successor to Europe’s Rail.
3. Climate-proof criteria in specifications for lifelong performance, focusing on integrating climate constraints into technical standards, procurement, and conformity assessments.
4. Climate resilience in rail sector’s industrial activities, focusing on climate resilience investments in manufacturing sites.
5. Policy recommendations, with five recommendations to European decision-makers and the whole rail system.

Together, these measures will enable a coherent, innovation-friendly framework to support the long-term resilience and competitiveness of the European rail system.

UNIFE calls for a shift towards a “resilience by design” approach, embedding climate adaptation at the core of rail products, systems, and industrial ecosystems, recognising the industry’s key role in climate-resilient railways. With this approach, the key principles should be proportionality, clearly defined responsibilities, and practical sense, while ensuring the overall regulatory framework becomes simpler rather than more complex. The European institutions should address risks effectively without creating unnecessary complexity or imposing additional requirements that add no real value.

UNIFE stands ready to work with EU institutions and stakeholders to ensure that:

• The rail industry remains fit for a changing climate;
• Rail continues to deliver safe, reliable and sustainable mobility for society.