Climate change and extreme weather could cost Germany up to €900bn by 2050.
A study carried out for Germany’s economic and environment ministries predicts that heatwaves, droughts and floods could cost the country in the region of €280bn-€900bn between 2022 and 2050. These costs include damage or destruction of buildings and infrastructure, disruption of goods supplies, loss of agricultural yields and potential impacts on the health system.
However, the study also said that the potential costs could be reduced by 60%-80% through adaptation measures such as more green spaces in cities and carbon storing if climate change turns out to be relatively “weak”.
The research comes as the German government prepares to publish a climate adaptation strategy. Extreme weather events have already cost the country at least €145bn between 2000 and 2021, €80bn of it in the past five years alone – including the 2021 floods in the Rhineland-Palatinate and North Rhine-Westphalia states.
