1 December, 2017
London - Europeans need to prepare for an increasingly risky century (click here) because of the growing impact of climate change on vulnerable infrastructure, scientists say.
London - Europeans need to prepare for an increasingly risky century (click here) because of the growing impact of climate change on vulnerable infrastructure, scientists say.
The risks they see ahead are not those usually associated directly with rising temperatures. What they are concerned about is the fragility of the physical structures and systems that keep industrial societies running – the infrastructure of roads and railways, power plants, industry, water supplies, schools and hospitals – in the teeth of the increasing ferocity of extreme weather.
Over the past three decades, most natural disasters (90%) have been caused by climate-related events, they say, and extreme climatic events are likely to become more frequent because of global warming.
Much of the harm these events cause in Europe comes from physical damage to its industrial life support system, as the global average temperature continues to rise as a consequence of warming driven by ever higher greenhouse gas levels in the atmosphere, in response to the profligate global consumption of fossil fuels....
...expect economic losses to be highest for energy and transport, rising from today’s €0.5bn for the energy sector to €8.2bn by the 2080s. For transport, the current annual expected damage of €0.8bn is likely, on present trends, to reach €11.9bn by the end of the century....
...For Europe as a whole, the damage caused by climate hazards to infrastructure rises progressively, from 0.12% of the current gross net investment in fixed capital assets to 1.37% by the end of this century. For northern Europe the expected damage corresponds to less than 1% of annual investments, but in southern European countries it is far higher, with Greece reaching 4.43% and Croatia 5.21%....
...expect economic losses to be highest for energy and transport, rising from today’s €0.5bn for the energy sector to €8.2bn by the 2080s. For transport, the current annual expected damage of €0.8bn is likely, on present trends, to reach €11.9bn by the end of the century....
...For Europe as a whole, the damage caused by climate hazards to infrastructure rises progressively, from 0.12% of the current gross net investment in fixed capital assets to 1.37% by the end of this century. For northern Europe the expected damage corresponds to less than 1% of annual investments, but in southern European countries it is far higher, with Greece reaching 4.43% and Croatia 5.21%....
