The EU's warning: the climate threat puts investments in territories like Valencia at risk

BrusselsEurope is facing uncomfortable climate forecasts: with current policies, the global temperature will rise by 1.5°C by 2030, about 2°C by 2050, and up to 3°C by 2100. On the Old Continent, where the speed of climate warming is even higher, temperatures could reach 4 or 5 degrees higher by the end of the century. Faced with this scenario, the European Union warns: it is necessary to move from prevention to adaptation. For this reason, the European Commission presented this Tuesday a proposal for a climate resilience law that will require member states to assess climate risks and adopt a national plan to address them. Governments will have to identify public authorities responsible for each climate risk and will have to designate an official to oversee the plan. And behind the proposal lies, above all, an economic argument.

The community executive warns that if territories are not prepared for the effects of climate change, investments will avoid these territories. Community sources cite as an example the torrential rains that struck the Valencian Community. "Companies will think twice before investing in a region like Valencia, or others, if they are not prepared to face the effects of climate change," a community official stated.

Brussels estimates that adapting the continent to new climate challenges will cost about 70 billion euros annually, but insists that it is an investment. If not done, the costs caused by possible damages could be between two and ten times higher. The proposal, for now, does not provide its own funding, but links the initiative to the approval of the new EU budget, which the various bodies are currently negotiating.

"Prevention is not an expense, but an investment – warned the vice-president of the community executive and climate chief, Teresa Ribera –. Our industry needs predictable water, stable energy, reliable infrastructure [...] And capital goes where it feels safe and where investments can be made. If there is no resilience, investment becomes more expensive, or simply leaves". According to the Commission, only 25% of losses from natural disasters in the EU have been insured.

"The summer of truth"

The plan arrives after what the EU considers to have been "the summer of truth" for the continent, during which there have been between 30,000 and 50,000 premature deaths due to the heat, according to Ribera. The heat and drought this summer, she estimated, have cost the bloc about 180 billion euros, the equivalent of 1% of the European GDP. In total, economic losses due to extreme phenomena have been about 50 billion euros per year over the last four years, that is, 200 billion euros between 2022 and 2025, while in the eighties they were about 8.6 billion annually.

The law, which still needs to be debated by member states and the Europarliament, aims to be more efficient and reduce the administrative burden on member states. Thus, it simplifies the current national planning instruments by merging them into a single national strategic plan, and at the same time, it aims to guarantee coherence and comparability between EU and national assessments.