EU bets on data to prepare for climate change impacts

The European Commission on Wednesday said it would create an arsenal of data tools to anticipate and adapt to the increasing impacts of climate change.

As European Union countries attempt to eliminate their net greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, they will still face decades of climate-related impacts, locked in from previous years’ emissions.

Last year was Europe’s hottest on record, rounding out the world’s hottest decade. As temperatures climb, the EU expects its economic losses from weather and climate stresses – already roughly 12 billion euros per year – to spiral.

While developing nations bear much of the brunt of today’s climate impacts, Europe is also under climate stress. A European heatwave in 2019 caused 2,500 deaths, while farmers in western Europe face increasing droughts, and recent hot summers temporarily dried up river shipping routes and curtailed power plants that use river water for cooling.

The European Commission on Wednesday said it will launch an observatory of data and tools on climate and health – building on an existing programme that tracks forest fires, drought and floods – to anticipate threats like heat death or the spread of disease as global warming pushes vector-borne diseases into new regions.

Brussels also outlined plans to improve its climate risk modelling – aiming to do this on asset-level basis, to anticipate the risks associated with an individual infrastructure project or building.

Improved EU models for climate stress testing will also help governments assess how climate risks affect public finances, the Commission said, for example by anticipating the funding needed to rebuild after an extreme weather event.

Some EU countries are already adapting. In the flood-prone Netherlands, Rotterdam has more than 360,000 square metres of “green roof” space to catch rainwater, while other cities have planted mini forests to hold rainwater and cool the area during heatwaves.

Still, the Commission said Europe is “lagging behind” on these physical solutions and pledged to incentivise them more, for example through schemes to pay farmers for storing carbon on their land. 

Main Photo: European Commissioner for European Green Deal Frans Timmermans speaks during a media conference on ‘Building a Climate-Resilient Future – A new EU Strategy on Adaptation to Climate Change’ at EU headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, 24 February 2021. EPA-EFE/Olivier Matthys / POOL