Germany's floods highlight need for climate action
Ban Ki-moon
Commentary
August 1, 2021
As scientists warn that increased flooding marks the end of a stable climate, we must step up our efforts to minimize the damage caused by extreme weather events, write Ban Ki-moon and Patrick Verkooijen.
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Scientists are warning that we need to adapt fast in order to mitigate the extent of climate catastrophesImage: picture-alliance/Bildagentur-online/Ohde
The recent catastrophic flooding across the Rhine basin and into Belgium and the Netherlands must be taken as a warning by countries across Europe and elsewhere of the increasingly urgent need to do more to adapt to and prepare for climate change.
The full cost of the damage is not yet known, but repairs are likely to run into billions and take many months.
While it is too early to know precisely the extent of climate change, scientists fear that damage caused by emissions is producing even worse extreme weather events than predicted. Brutal heatwaves seen recently along the western seaboard of the United States and Canada, as well as in Siberia and other parts of the world, are further evidence of an increasingly hostile climate — and the need to adapt to it, fast.
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A global problem
The pictures from Germany underscore the dangers that climate change poses even to the world's most advanced economies. While Europe has done more than most to attempt to mitigate the risks — the European Commission recently proposed the most ambitious package of climate measures yet by a major economy — these will not reverse changes that have already happened. Carbon dioxide lingers in the atmosphere for about 100 years.
A certain amount of warming — and the extreme weather events associated with it — is already baked into our future making adaptation a necessity even if the Paris Agreement targets are met. Scientists warn that the recent floods and heatwaves are not the new normal, rather they herald the end of a stable climate. And without action, according to the World Bank, up to 132 million people could be pushed into extreme poverty by climate change by 2030.
Patrick Verkooijen (left) and Ban Ki-moonImage: Global Center on Adaptation
These warnings must urge us into faster action, with more funding, to adapt and find ways to work with the natural world rather than against it.
By accelerating investment today, we can prevent billions — even trillions —worth of economic damage and save many thousands of lives. A Global Commission on Adaptation report found that investing $1.8 trillion (€1.5 trillion) globally by 2030 in just five key areas, including climate-resilient infrastructure, such as stronger dams and drainage systems, and early warning systems could generate $7.1 trillion in total net benefits.
Some excellent climate-resilience projects already exist. In Germany, the new district of HafenCity within Hamburg is being built on raised plinths, lifting the whole area at least eight meters above sea level. In the Netherlands, engineers have been working on "Room for the River," a program to widen and deepen the rivers Rhine, Meuse, Waal and IJssel to protect nearby cities and towns. Besides creating additional water channels, flood-prone buildings have been removed and additional storage basins created with farmers co-operating to allow agricultural areas to be flooded as required.
In China, where floods have caused on average ¥251 billion ($38 billion, €33 billion) of damage annually in the decade to 2016, so-called sponge cities such as Xiangyang Han River Eco City now feature more water-absorbent areas including green roofs, fewer hard surfaces, and more efficient water channels and storage.
In pictures: Deadly extreme weather shocks the world
From the Mediterranean to Germany to California and beyond, dramatic pictures of the severe impacts of extreme weather have been dominating the news this summer. Is the climate crisis to blame?
Image: Jon Nazca/REUTERS
Rainfall best ally for Spanish firefighters
A wildfire that burned through at least 7,780 hectares (30 square miles) in about a week and devastated forests in southern Spain was brought under control thanks to steady rains. The downpour helped the firefighters, who were backed by some 50 aircrafts. The blaze was one of the most difficult to combat in recent times in Spain. Some 2,600 people were forced to flee their homes.
Image: Jon Nazca/REUTERS
Fierce flash floods in Europe
Unprecedented flooding — caused by two months' worth of rainfall in two days — has resulted in devastating damage in central Europe, leaving at least 226 people dead in Germany and Belgium. Narrow valley streams swelled into raging floods in the space of hours, wiping out centuries-old communities. Rebuilding the ruined homes, businesses and infrastructure is expected to cost billions of euros.
Image: Thomas Lohnes/Getty Images
Europe on fire
While half of Europe is drowning, elsewhere areas are going up in flames: Large fires raged, particularly in Greece, Italy and Turkey. They have caused unforeseeable monetary damage, while thousands of people in Europe have lost their homes and their belongings.
Image: ANGELOS TZORTZINIS/AFP
Record heat in Italy
In addition to deadly wildfires, Italy also battled record heat temperatures, with the Italian Health Ministry issuing the maximum possible heat warning level for many cities. On the island of Sicily, 48.8 degrees Celsius (almost 120 degrees Fahrenheit) was measured on August 11 — a new European heat record. The heat could make existing fires worse, or lead to new ones.
Image: Andrew Medichini/AP/picture alliance
Still out of control
Meanwhile, the Dixie Fire continues smoldering in California. It's California's largest fire on record, and among the most destructive in the state's history — it wiped the town of Greenville off the map. Although it's about 60% contained, the fire continues to burn two months in. Meanwhile, hot and dry conditions continue in the region, spreading fears of more fire.
Image: DAVID SWANSON/REUTERS
Extreme rainy seasons
Earlier this summer, record floods also hit parts of India and central China, overwhelming dams and drains and flooding streets. The downpours have been particularly heavy, even for the rainy season. Scientists have predicted that climate change will lead to more frequent and intense rainfall — warmer air holds more water, creating more rain.
Image: AFP/Getty Images
Greece melts down amid heat waves
As nations flood in northern Europe, Mediterranean countries like Greece were in the grip of several heat waves. In the first week of July, temperatures soared to 43 degrees Celsius (109 Fahrenheit). Tourism hot spots like the Acropolis were forced to shut during the day, while the extreme heat also sparked forest fires outside Thessaloniki, which helicopters tried to douse.
Image: Sakis Mitrolidis/AFP/Getty Images
Sardinia scorched by 'unprecedented' wildfires
"It is an unprecedented reality in Sardinia’s history," said Sardinia's Governor Christian Salinas of the ongoing wildfires that have scorched the historic central western area of Montiferru. "So far, 20,000 hectares of forest that represent centuries of environmental history of our island have gone up in ashes." Around 1,500 people were evacuated from the island by the end of July.
Image: Vigili del Fuoco/REUTERS
Heat records in the US, Canada
Intense heat is becoming more common, as seen in late June in the US states of Washington and Oregon and the Canadian province of British Columbia. Scorching temperatures under a "heat dome," hot air trapped for days by high pressure fronts, caused hundreds of heat-related deaths. The village of Lytton recorded a high of 49.6 Celsius (121 Fahrenheit) — and burned to the ground the next day.
Image: Ted S. Warren/AP/picture alliance
Wildfires sparking thunderstorms
Heat and drought are fueling one of the most intense wildfire seasons in the West Coast and Pacific Northwest regions. Oregon's Bootleg Fire, which burned an area the size of Los Angeles in just two weeks, was so big it created its own weather and sent smoke all the way to New York City. A recent study said the weather conditions would have been "virtually impossible" without climate change.
Image: National Wildfire Coordinating Group/Inciweb/ZUMA Wire/picture alliance
Amazon nearing a 'tipping point'?
To the south, central Brazil is suffering its worst drought 100 years, increasing the risk of fires and further deforestation in the Amazon rainforest. Researchers recently reported that a large swath of the southeastern Amazon has flipped from absorbing to emitting planet-warming CO2 emissions, pushing the rainforest closer to a "tipping point."
Image: Andre Penner/AP Photo/picture alliance
'On the verge of starvation'
After years of unrelenting drought, more than 1.14 million people in Madagascar are food-insecure, with some now forced to eat raw cactus, wild leaves and roots, and locusts in famine-like conditions. With the absence of natural disaster, crop failure or political conflict, the dire situation in the African nation is said to be first famine in modern history caused solely by climate change.
Image: Laetitia Bezain/AP photo/picture alliance
More people fleeing natural disasters
The number of people fleeing conflict and natural disasters hit a 10-year high in 2020, with a record 55 million people relocating within their own country. That's in addition to some 26 million people who fled across borders. A joint report released by refugee monitors in May found that three-quarters of the internally displaced were victims of extreme weather — and that number is likely to grow.
Image: Fabeha Monir/DW
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Sharing success
On their own, however, these projects are not enough. One of the greatest challenges of climate adaptation is that responsibility spans many diverse authorities, at the local, regional and national level.
This makes it imperative that we share successful strategies and transfer knowledge and solutions wherever appropriate. To understand the scale of action needed, as well as measure success, governments and the private sector must carry out climate vulnerability assessments and stress tests to evaluate the risk of damage from flooding and heat stress. They must incorporate the resulting data into planning and investments, and closely monitor progress toward greater resilience.
We need to act fast. Gathering detailed knowledge will also allow us to better protect vulnerable groups, which usually suffer disproportionately more.
These recent extreme weather events have shown that the climate emergency is an all-of-society and all-of-world problem. It is encouraging to read that the US and the EU are planning to increase their contributions to help developing countries fight climate change, but all developed countries must now deliver on their promise to jointly mobilize $100 billion a year in finance for both mitigation and adaptation in developing countries.
As the floods in Europe and China have shown, we need to accelerate adaptation efforts worldwide to ensure we are as well placed as possible to deal with whatever our newly unstable climate unleashes next. And we need to do it now.
Ban Ki-moon is 8th Secretary-General of the United Nations. Patrick Verkooijen is CEO of the Global Center on Adaptation in Rotterdam.
