Amid record temperatures, Brussels looks to ready Europe for climate change

Climate change is no longer a hazard befalling poorer nations on the world’s periphery — it’s hurting the EU too, flooding towns and driving temperatures to record heights. 

That’s why the European Commission on Wednesday released a new adaptation strategy, designed to ensure the bloc not only ramps up efforts to drastically cut emissions by 2050 but also survives forest fires, heatwaves, droughts and storms.

“It is clear from the COVID-19 pandemic that insufficient preparation can be deadly,” the Commission’s Green Deal chief Frans Timmermans said Wednesday. “There is no vaccine against climate change — only preparation.”

It’s also an acknowledgement that efforts to limit emissions aren’t working. The 2019 heatwave that ravaged European cities and killed 2,500 people was the deadliest natural disaster worldwide that year, the Commission says. Climate and weather extremes are causing losses of over €12 billion per year in the EU.

One of the major problems is that ever fewer losses from climate-related disasters are insured. According to the Commission, only 35 percent, on average, of the losses are covered; in some parts of Europe that’s as low as 5 percent.

The new strategy aims to prevent taxpayers from being buried in billions of uninsurable damages, and attract private investors and the insurance industry “to be part of risk sharing.”

“Very often when we have disasters because of erratic weather patterns, or because we have not adapted to the risk of that, the bill goes to the general public,” Timmermans told reporters ahead of the announcement. “We need to look at sectors such as insurance … where the risks … are more and more put on the shoulder of public authorities.”

For now, the Commission is holding back on regulation, focusing on soft measures to promote disaster insurance schemes and improve climate insurance products.

The strategy also aims to help policymakers scrambling to adapt industries such as agriculture, transport and crucial infrastructure to record temperatures, storms, floods and droughts, emphasizing the need to shift public awareness.

The key, Timmermans said, is “creating transparency about the costs” of inaction. Such efforts could be promoted through reduced premiums or the insurance of nature-based solutions. Brussels also wants governments to better account for climate risks in their fiscal frameworks.

The Netherlands, which is under constant threat from the sea, figured that out centuries ago. “We very quickly learned that it was very profitable to invest massively in protection, because not doing so would incur a cost if you just let the floods keep coming,” said Timmermans, who is Dutch.

Adapt or…

Governments are failing to cut emissions. The world is heading toward global warming of roughly 3 degrees by the end of the century — a far cry from the 1.5 degrees hoped for under the Paris Agreement.

Conservative estimates suggest that exposing today’s EU economy to that kind of warming “would result in an annual loss of at least EUR 170 billion,” according to the Commission.

The Commission first came out with an adaptation strategy in 2013, but since then, “the situation has become much more urgent. The need to share information has been felt much more strongly and the need to react much more quickly has also increased,” Timmermans said.

Still, those seeking binding measures to tackle the challenge are disappointed.

The main tenets of the strategy are to improve data and information flows around climate impacts and solutions, step up planning and risk assessments and speed up measures that can shield communities from the immediate shocks.

Michael Bloss, the German Greens MEP negotiating the Climate Law, described the strategy as “urgently necessary but disappointing.”

Continuing to drive up emissions is “already costing taxpayers dearly,” he said: “Thanks to climate damages we paid out billions to affected farmers and foresters last year. The reason is our timid efforts to tackle climate change.”

Campaign group Climate Action Network Europe said the strategy “falls short of the binding means to achieve the set objective.”

“Ensuring the EU’s preparedness against hazardous climate change should at least require the development of mandatory adaptation plans, climate vulnerability assessments and climate stress tests at local, regional, and national levels,” it said in a statement.

Nicolas Jeanmart from Insurance Europe, in an emailed comment, said the industry welcomed the Commission’s “ambitions to tackle the climate protection gap” and “boost prevention.”

The industry, however, also warned against attempts to impose a “one-size-fits-all solution” from Brussels. Countries are affected differently, “and the role played by insurance and public authorities also varies significantly,” Jeanmart said.

Global reach

The strategy is also energizing campaigners who argue the EU must increase its financial and technical support to developing countries. Climate-related impacts can disrupt trade, supply chains and migration, promote the spread of infections and threaten international security.

Money tends to flow faster to emission-reducing measures such as renewable investments (which typically promise economic returns and new market opportunities for EU industry) than to adaptation efforts.

The EU needs to urgently provide “solidarity and support” for developing countries, said Wendel Trio, director of Climate Action Network Europe.

Brussels on Wednesday acknowledged it’s got to step up. “One of the decisive factors of whether we’re going to succeed with making the Paris Agreement [a] success is if we put enough efforts in adaptation strategies, not just in Europe, but also especially in the developing world,” Timmermans said.

This story has been updated with reaction from Insurance Europe.

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