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Ahrweiler after the flood: The flood made many houses in the village uninhabitable
Photo: Thomas Frey / dpa
The devastating floods in western Germany have reignited the debate about the consequences of climate change.
After the flood disaster, the Federal Environment Ministry now wants to launch a climate damage register.
State Secretary for the Environment Jochen Flasbarth told the dpa news agency in Berlin: “Germany urgently needs a better knowledge base on the damage and costs of climate change.
The most recent severe weather disaster made this clear to us.
But what is really in store for us is not always easy to determine today: climate impacts are complex, studies often only consider a part of reality, information flows between relevant bodies are not sufficiently established. "
A systematic recording for the whole of Germany is therefore not yet possible, according to Flasbarth.
»But decision-makers in the federal, state and local governments need to know who is suffering most from the consequences of climate change and what damage and preventive measures really cost.
This is necessary in order to better assess future needs. "
Systematically bundle long-term damage and damage costs from climate change
A climate damage register will provide answers in the future.
The Ministry is currently having the Federal Environment Agency develop its methodology and structure.
"Potential damage and expected costs can then be forecast even better and the right precautions can be taken in good time."
As the ministry also announced, there is still no complete picture of the extent of the damage caused by climate change or the exact proportion of climate change in extreme weather events, mainly due to methodological difficulties.
The Federal Government therefore includes data and studies by other relevant actors on the costs of damage from extreme weather events in its actions - for example from insurers.
In the future, long-term damage and damage costs due to climate change should be systematically bundled in the climate damage register - both insured damage and uninsured damage.
It also said: “In parallel to the development of the climate damage register, we will also obtain a comprehensive overview of which expenditure the federal government is planning for climate adaptation today and which will be required in the future.
In this way, future damage costs can be better estimated and compared with the effort required for adaptation measures. "
asc / dpa
