(Finance) – The climate change caused in theEuropean Union (EU) economic losses of over 145 billion euros in the last decade. This was announced by Eurostat, which has revised estimates from the European Environment Agency, underlining how the situation is worsening. The thirty-year moving average of climate-related economic losses shows “a clear trend, increasing by almost 2% per year over the last decade”.
Climate-related economic losses measure economic losses due to meteorological and climatic events. Meteorological and climatic events are defined as meteorological events (storms), hydrological events (floods, mass movements) and climatological events (heat waves, cold waves, droughts, forest fires).
In the 2020, total climate-related economic losses amounted to € 12 billion. Total loss highest was registered in 2017 (27.9 billion euros), more than double compared to 2020, due to the heat waves recorded in Europe that have dried up the land and caused fires. Total loss lower was observed in 2012 (3.7 billion euros).
In 2020, climate-related economic losses were 27 euros per inhabitant of the EU. The Member State with the highest per capita loss (almost three times higher than the EU average) was Greece (91 euros per inhabitant), followed by France (62 euros) fromIreland (42 euros). The lowest losses per inhabitant were recorded in Bulgaria (0.7 euros per inhabitant), Slovenia and Slovakia (both 4 euros).
The losses for Italyin the last decade, they have been over 35 billion euroswith a peak of 11.9 billion euros in 2017 and the lowest value of 625 million euros in 2013. In 2020 they amounted to almost 2.5 billion euros, equal to 41 euros per capita (figure that places Italy in fourth place in the EU in the comparison per inhabitant).
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