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A firefighter extinguishes a burning field near Karlsruhe
Photo: Lars Rewesa / Einsatz-Report24 / IMAGO
The climate crisis makes extreme weather conditions – heat and drought on the one hand, heavy rain and floods on the other – more likely.
This has been in the reports of climate researchers for years.
And so attribution research can now clearly prove it.
But the concrete effects of these findings may not yet be comprehensible to everyone.
Perhaps the results of a research project for Germany initiated by the Federal Ministry of Economics will help at least a little further.
The results for which the economic research company Prognos had worked together with the Institute for Ecological Economic Research (IÖW) and the Society for Economic Structure Research (GWS) were presented on Monday.
Accordingly, since the year 2000, climate change has caused damage averaging 6.6 billion euros in Germany every year.
Overall, the heat, drought and floods caused by climate change would have cost at least 145 billion euros by 2021, according to the Ministry of Economic Affairs, which is also responsible for climate protection, and the Ministry of the Environment.
Direct damage to buildings and infrastructure or loss of earnings in forestry and agriculture was calculated, as were the costs of indirect damage, such as reduced labor productivity.
However, health effects or the consequences for biological diversity could not be quantified.
The two hot summers of 2018 and 2019 alone and the flood of 2021 probably cost more than 80 billion euros.
The flood hit, especially in Rhineland-Palatinate and North Rhine-Westphalia, with more than 40 billion euros.
The authors of the study pointed out that the sums mentioned are lower limits.
It is also not easy to differentiate between the usual extreme weather damage and events aggravated by climate change.
This applies, for example, to some storms and hail events that were included in the study.
Due to the lack of long-term data, no clear statements can be made here about the change in intensity or frequency in the course of climate change.
Forestry and agriculture in large parts of Germany suffered from the heat and drought.
For the two extreme years of 2018 and 2019 alone, these sectors of the economy had to post damage costs of around 25.6 billion euros.
Another €9 billion occurred in industry and commerce as productivity among working people fell due to the heat.
Economics and Climate Minister Robert Habeck said: "We will and must step up our efforts to achieve comprehensive climate protection in all sectors." However, this is only part of the task: "Secondly, we need a reliable climate adaptation strategy that protects our population, our infrastructure and our protects the economy from heat, flooding and strong weather fluctuations.« Environment Minister Steffi Lemke also announced a national water strategy for this purpose.
In the meantime, this year's Petersberg Climate Dialogue has started in Berlin to promote international climate protection.
This is intended to prepare for this year's World Climate Conference, which will take place in Egypt in November.
Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock assured the conference participants in Berlin that Germany would meet its climate protection goals.
Because of the Russian attack on Ukraine, it is necessary to reactivate coal-fired power plants as an emergency reserve in the short term.
»That does not mean that we are giving up the 1.5 degree target«.
On the contrary, they want to speed up the expansion of wind and solar energy.
According to Baerbock, there are still eight years left worldwide to halve emissions of greenhouse gases.
chs/Reuters/dpa