Climate change has cost the EU almost €500 billion in the last 40 years
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At COP27, world leaders will be discussing how to take concrete action against the collective threat of climate change. Its impacts have become increasingly more evident with extreme weather such as heat waves, floods, and storms.
These changes are causing losses around the world. In the EU alone, climate change-related extremes caused over €145 billion in economic losses in the past decade.
Analysing trends in economic losses is difficult, mostly due to the high variability from year to year. However, the European Environmental Agency (EEA) reports that climate-related extremes are becoming more common as time goes on.
The agency warns that climate change could result in even greater losses in the coming years if mitigating actions are not pursued.
In 2020, the total climate change-related economic losses across 21 EU countries were €12 billion according to Eurostat – not including Hungary, Cyprus, Malta, Latvia, Estonia, and Lithuania where data were not available.
Between 1980 and 2020, the estimated losses reached almost €500 billion in the EU countries.
France, Italy, and Germany are being hit the hardest by this extreme weather.
In 2020, the climate-related economic loss per inhabitant in the EU was €27. On the country level, Greece experienced the greatest loss per inhabitant at €91 in 2020.
France (€62) and Ireland (€42) followed with the lowest loss per inhabitant seen in Bulgaria (€0.70).
Photo: Wrecked cars and trucks from the B265 federal highway in Erftstadt, Germany, 17 July 2021, after large parts of Western Germany were hit by heavy, continuous rain resulting in local flash floods that destroyed buildings and swept away cars. EPA-EFE/SASCHA STEINBACH
