Germany “pays” 6.6 billion euros a year for climate change

BERLIN, July 18 (Xinhua) — According to a study by the German media, an average of 6.6 billion euros per year has been lost in Germany due to anthropogenic climate change since 2000, and the cumulative loss is at least about 145 billion euros.

This conclusion was reached by the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Climate Protection commissioned a research project on the consequences of climate change spending in Germany.

The above losses are reportedly only the “tip of the iceberg”. This is because some of the losses, such as the loss of biodiversity, cannot be measured in monetary terms. The conclusions point out that most of the losses are caused by extreme weather events and that the effects of increased climate change are clearly confirmed.

The study shows that damages caused by summer droughts and heat amount to 34.9 billion euros in 2018 and 2019, and 40.5 billion euros in 2021 from floods in places like Rhineland-Palatinate and North Rhine-Westphalia. Together with other sporadic hail and storm events caused by about 5.2 billion euros of losses, the total losses caused by extreme weather events exceeded 80 billion euros.

Forestry and agriculture in most parts of Germany were affected by the heat and drought, and these industries lost about 25.6 billion euros in 2018 and 2019 alone, the report said.

In response to these results, German Federal Minister of Economics and Climate Protection Habeck said that, firstly, the consequences of the global climate crisis must be kept at a tolerable level, which can only be achieved by increasing climate protection efforts, and secondly, reliable adaptation strategies to climate change are needed to protect nationals, infrastructure and the economy from the effects of high temperatures, floods and strong weather changes.

Source:China News Network


Post time: Jul-25-2022