Europe is not prepared for rapidly growing climate risks, said the European Environment Agency (EEA) on Monday 11 March, in the context of the publication of the first-ever climate risk assessment report, which informed the European Commission’s ‘climate resilience and adaptation’ package, to be presented on Tuesday 12 March in Strasbourg.
According to the EEA, in many cases, incremental adaptation will not be sufficient.
“If decisive action is not taken now, most climate risks identified could reach critical or catastrophic levels by the end of this century. Hundreds of thousands of people would die from heatwaves, and economic losses from coastal floods alone could exceed €1 trillion per year”, says the report.
Asked about the communication expected from the European Commission, spokesman Tim McPhie explained that the EEA’s work has “given a very clear warning and a very clear call to action of what’s to come. And the Commission plans to set out a policy response, how we would envisage that being done at all different levels of government”.
He also explained that the forthcoming communication would be closely aligned with the areas covered by the EEA report and would consist of a “response” to the warning sent out by the EEA.
The EEA’s assessment focuses on 36 major climate risks for Europe within five broad clusters: ecosystems, food, health, infrastructure and economy and finance.
As far as ecosystems are concerned, almost all the risks identified in this area require urgent action, particularly for marine and coastal areas, which have an impact on food, health, infrastructure and the economy.
“More urgent action is needed to prevent further damage. The policies are in place, but preparation is lacking, and the targets and objectives are unclear or short-term”, explained the EEA’s Executive Director, Leena Ylä-Mononen.
As far as food is concerned, southern Europe is facing critical food production risks due to heat and drought.
Human health, meanwhile, is most severely affected by heat, while infrastructure faces increased threats from extreme weather events, impacting essential services such as energy, water and transport.
Climate risks are also weighing on the European economy, increasing insurance costs, threatening assets, increasing public spending and the cost of loans, and jeopardising the viability of the EU Solidarity Fund, which is already under threat from the costly floods and forest fires of recent years.
“Economic losses due to extreme weather and climate events in the EU Member States between 1980 and 2022 exceeded €650 billion, and less than a fifth of these losses were actually insured. Extremely costly events have also occurred recently, such as the floods of 2021 in Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands”, Leena Ylä-Mononen recalled.
The EEA believes that policy implementation is lagging behind quickly increasing risk levels. The Agency therefore considers it necessary to promote cooperation and coordinated action, given that the major climate risks identified in the report are considered to be “co-owned” by the EU, its Member States and the regional and local levels.
The report also points out that adaptation policies can both support and conflict with other environmental, social and economic policy objectives and that, thus, “an integrated policy approach considering multiple policy objectives is essential for ensuring efficient adaptation”.
To see the report: https://aeur.eu/f/b8l (Original version in French by Pauline Denys)