Dried meadow in Pulheim, North Rhine-Westphalia
Photo: Oliver Berg / DPAGermany's companies are making extreme weather conditions more and more difficult. However, few take precautions against it.
This was the result of a survey by the Hamburg Helmut Schmidt University and the Munich Ifo Center for Macroeconomics and surveys. According to this, a considerable number of companies in Germany are losing added value due to extreme weather situations, and their share has increased significantly over the past decade. Heat waves and drought in particular were a problem for companies, with almost two thirds of those surveyed saying they had been affected in the past ten years.
Companies from Thuringia and Saxony-Anhalt experienced extreme weather conditions particularly often, while those from southern Germany were less frequent. Northeast Germany, i.e. Berlin, Brandenburg, and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, as well as Saxony, are among the federal states that have been hardest hit. The scientists conclude that "there is a general high degree of vulnerability in eastern German regions with regard to extreme weather events".
Almost half of the companies, 45 percent, are losing sales due to heat waves. Textiles and clothing, construction, food, beverages and tobacco as well as retail are the hardest hit.
Cold waves: greater damage, but less often
Companies have to deal with cold waves much less often, only 13 percent have been affected in the past few years. But when a cold spell sets in, it causes damage more often. Almost 60 percent of the companies report negative effects on added value, especially the construction industry is affected.
Many companies expect that they will be exposed to extreme weather situations more often in the future. Nevertheless, well over half of the respondents who consider precautionary measures to be fundamentally necessary have not yet taken any measures. So there is "a considerable need for adjustment," according to the scientists.
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