Extreme weather events, such as heat waves and floods, have claimed some 195,000 lives and nearly €560 billion in Europe since 1980, according to the European Environment Agency.
“Extreme weather events, including heat waves and floods, caused economic losses estimated at 560,000 million euros in the European Union between 1980 and 2021, of which only 170,000 million (30%) were insured” and caused 195,000 fatalities, revealed European Environment. Agency.
The entity has made a new portal available online, which brings together the most recent data on the impact of these events.
In February of last year, the balance presented by the European entity amounted to 510,000 million euros and 142,000 deaths, between 1980 and 2020.
In 2021, the floods in Germany and Belgium cost close to 50 billion euros.
The reason for the large variation in the number of victims is a change in the methodology used in France and Germany, explained the European Environment Agency.
“To avoid further losses, we urgently need to move from reacting to extreme weather events (…) to proactive preparation,” said Aleksandra Kazmierczak, an expert at the European Environment Agency, quoted by Agence France-Presse.
Heat waves are responsible for 81% of deaths and 15% of financial losses.
Marked by a series of heat waves, the summer of last year, which is still not counted in the accounts, registered a higher than usual number of deaths throughout Europe.
According to the European Environment Agency, in July last year there were 53,000 more deaths than the monthly average for 2016-2019, not all of them directly attributed to heat.
Spain recorded more than 4,600 extreme heat-related deaths between June and August.
Source: TSF
