Europe risks facing €190bn climate change bill
Europe risks facing a €190 billion (£151.9m) bill as a result of climate damages from global warming, according to a new report.
The EU’s Joint Research Centre, the European Commission’s in-house science service, has predicted a net welfare loss of 1.8% of current EU GDP if no action is taken and global temperature rises by 3.5°C.
It analysed the impacts of climate change in nine different sectors, including agriculture, tourism, energy, droughts and transport infrastructure.
The cost of river flood damages could exceed €10 billion (£8bn) and 8,000 km2 of forest could burn in southern Europe, the report found.
Southern Europe and central southern Europe would bear 70% of the losses while northern Europe would account for 1% and the UK and Ireland 5%, it states.
Connie Hedegaard, European Commissioner for Climate Action said: “No action is clearly the most expensive solution of all. Why pay for the damages when we can invest in reducing our climate impacts and becoming a competitive low carbon economy?”
The assessments are based on scenarios where the climate expected by the end of the century (2080s) occurs in the current population.
