The Water supply and sanitation Technology Platform (WssTP) was initiated by the European Commission in 2004. It is led by industries in collaboration with academics, research organisations and water users to help structure the European Research Area and identify R&D needs for the water sector. In December 2008, the board of the WssTP identified the need to create a Task Force on Climate Change in order to build a working group focused on the issue and able to assist the EU Commission in the related Calls for Projects. The Task Force on Climate Change did a review on the research and technology development (RTD) needs related to each of the WssTP topics, highlighting the challenges they will face in a climate change context. This paper is based on the review carried out and presents its main conclusions. The RTD topics identified involve a broad range of expertise areas and can be divided into two main groups: mitigation and adaptation. The latter will be brought to the fore in this paper.