At an event on resilience in Europe and Belgium through climate and environmental risk assessment organised by the Belgian Presidency of the Council of the European Union on Monday 22 April, the Director-General of the Commission’s Directorate-General for Climate Action (DG CLIMA), Kurt Vandenberghe, said: “It’s pretty hard for companies to admit that we need crises to spur us into action. But it would be even worse not to act at all”.
Stressing the importance of anticipating rather than reacting to extreme climatic events, the Director General returned to the results published on 11 March in the report by the European Environment Agency (EEA) (see EUROPE 13368/11), in particular the assessment of climate risks for Europe.
According to this assessment, even in the most optimistic global warming scenarios, Europe faces an increase in the risks associated with extreme heat, droughts, forest fires and floods. These phenomena threaten not only infrastructures and economies, but also public health and food security.
Mr Vandenberghe also referred to a study by the Potsdam Research Institute on the effects of climate change, indicating that the average loss of global income could reach 20% over the next 25 years, with even more serious predictions for Europe.
Kurt Vandenberghe stressed the importance of preventing uncertainty from leading to inaction. He insisted that we should not wait for perfect clarity before taking action. In his view, the impacts of climate change are not simply the result of unexpected natural disasters, but rather the consequence of identified risks and the policies adopted to manage them.
He illustrated the urgency of understanding and responding to climate risks with the example of the crisis management simulations organised by DG CLIMA, which revealed the imminent impacts of climate change and the preparation needed to deal with them. These simulations involved various roles, including political decision-makers, business leaders and scientists.
The Director General also called for collective and reinforced action. “We need to document these choices and make them very explicit”, he insisted, highlighting the need for European policies to invest in well thought out climate decisions. On this point, he reiterated the European Commission’s commitment to supporting climate resilience initiatives.
With regard to the financial aspects, he stressed the need for political players, companies and investors to understand the investment and protection requirements in order to provide an adequate response to the challenges. According to Mr Vandeberghe, they must plan specific actions based on the impact and urgency of these needs. (Original version in French by Nithya Paquiry)