BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Europe urgently needs stronger measures to prepare health systems as well as agricultural, road and energy infrastructure for increasingly severe climate change.
The European Union is developing its first analysis of climate-related risks at European level to ensure that future EU policies and spending take into account the risks of further warming, including the acceleration the number of heat waves, droughts and floods.
The draft analysis, seen by Reuters, reveals the growing cost of climate change. According to the report, economic losses due to extreme weather and climate events in EU countries exceeded 650 billion euros between 1980 and 2022.
Among major incidents, the 2021 floods in Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands resulted in costs of €44 billion. Flash floods in Slovenia last year caused damage estimated at more than 10% of the country’s GDP.
Read also…
The draft, which could still be modified before its publication scheduled for next week, calls on the European Union to integrate climate risks into budgets and policies across the economy, both in the short term and beyond 2050 .
“Failure to take into account the most pessimistic scenarios dangerously exposes the EU to the extreme and unexpected effects of climate change,” states the text.
For example, the EEA recommends that the EU propose mandatory requirements to protect those working outdoors, including farmers and workers in construction and other industries, from extreme heat.
Brussels should also design European financing instruments to help countries prepare their health systems to cope with climate change, which particularly affects vulnerable and elderly people.
According to researchers, extreme heat waves that hit Europe in 2022 caused more than 60,000 deaths.
Europe also needs tougher measures to tackle the growing threat that droughts pose to agriculture. The draft report notes that less than 2% of EU agricultural subsidies help farmers manage these risks.
The report also warns of growing risks to critical infrastructure: floods damaging roads, extreme heat distorting railway lines and droughts straining power grids.
To avoid building new infrastructure that could aggravate these risks, the EEA believes that the European Union should update the Eurocodes standards, which guide the structural design of buildings and civil engineering works, to incorporate climate forecast data focused on the evolution of these risks.
(Reporting by Kate Abnett; French version by Gaëlle Sheehan, editing by Zhifan Liu)
©2024 Thomson Reuters, all rights reserved. Reuters content is the intellectual property of Thomson Reuters or its third party content providers. Any copying, republication or redistribution of Reuters content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters. Thomson Reuters shall not be liable for any errors or delays in content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon. “Reuters” and the Reuters Logo are trademarks of Thomson Reuters and its affiliated companies.