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WEATHER

Politicians debate ‘€30 billion’ fund to rebuild German flood zones

German politicians will discuss a potential €30 billion relief fund to for the reconstruction of flood-hit areas at a meeting between Angela Merkel and the state leaders on Tuesday.

Published: 10 August 2021 11:21 CEST
Politicians debate '€30 billion' fund to rebuild German flood zones
Part of Bundestraße in Altenahr was completely swept away by the floods and will have to be rebuilt. Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Thomas Frey

Mammoth construction projects in areas ravaged by July’s floods would financed half by the federal government and half by the states, according to a government paper obtained by DPA. 

Though the exact sums are likely to be thrashed out at Tuesday’s meeting between Merkel and the state premiers, a ballpark figure of €30 billion has so far been put on the table.

Now a rapid parliamentary resolution from the Bundestag and Bundesrat is urgently needed, North Rhine-Westphalia state premier and chancellor candidate Armin Laschet (CDU) said on Monday.

READ ALSO: Frontrunner to succeed Merkel calls for up to €30 billion to rebuild flood-hit German towns

Malu Dreyer, who serves as the state premier in flood-bit Rhineland-Palatinate, agreed. 

The Social Democratic Party (SPD) politician told the German Editorial Network on Tuesday that haste was the order of the day.

“People have been hit hard and need the security and confidence that they will not be left alone in the reconstruction process either,” Dreyer said, adding that there was a huge amount of solidarity between the federal and state governments. 

“The sooner the Bundestag and Bundesrat meet the better for the people in the disaster areas,” she said.

Improvements to warning systems up for discussion

According to the Association of German Chambers of Industry and Commerce (DIHK), the damage to businesses in North Rhine-Westphalia and Rhineland-Palatinate alone amounts to a billion euros.

Cautious estimates by local chambers of commerce and industry put the number of companies directly affected at more than 11,000.

“The amount of damage to buildings and machinery alone could exceed €3.5 billion,” they said.

READ ALSO: 

According to DPA, improvements to warnings for citizens are also set to be discussed on Tuesday.

These include a programme to upgrade sirens and a system that sends messages to mobile phone users similar to an SMS – to all those who are in the vicinity of a radio network at the time. This technology is already used in many other countries to warn against natural disasters such as floods.

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CLIMATE CRISIS

Record heat deaths and floods: How Germany is being hit by climate change

Germany was further confronted with extreme weather conditions and their consequences last year. With this summer likely to break records again, a new report shows the impact climate change is having.

Published: 22 April 2024 11:28 CEST
Record heat deaths and floods: How Germany is being hit by climate change

In 2023, more days of extremely high temperatures were recorded than at any time since records began, the European climate change service Copernicus and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) wrote in a joint report published on Monday. 

The records go back to 1940 and sometimes even further.

“2023 has been a complex and multifaceted year in terms of climate hazards in Europe,” said Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) Director Carlo Buontempo. “We have witnessed widespread flooding, but also extreme forest fires with high temperatures and severe droughts.” 

These events have put a strain on natural ecosystems, and have also challenged agriculture, water management and public health.

According to the report, around 1.6 million people were affected by floods last year, and more than half a million people were affected by storms. The weather- and climate-related damage is estimated at well over 10 billion euros. “Unfortunately, these numbers are unlikely to decrease in the near future,” Buontempo said, referring to ongoing human-caused climate change.

Heat turns deadly, even in Germany

Averaged across Europe, 11 months of above-average warmth were recorded last year, with September being the warmest since records began in 1940. 

A record number of days with so-called extreme heat stress, i.e. perceived temperatures of over 46C, was also registered. 

As a result of higher temperatures, the number of heat-related deaths has risen by an average of 30 percent over the past 20 years.

According to the Robert Koch Institute, at least 3,100 deaths in Germany were linked to heat in the first nine months of 2023.

“In some cases, for example heat stroke, heat exposure leads directly to death, while in most cases it is the combination of heat exposure and pre-existing conditions that leads to death,” RKI explained in a statement, adding that women tend to be affected more than men due to higher proportion of women in older age groups.

In Germany temperatures above 30C are considered a heatwave. As weather patterns change due to human-caused climate change, heat waves have increased in number and length.

READ ALSO: How German cities are adapting to rising temperatures

Historically Germany hasn’t faced so many severe heatwaves each year, and central air conditioning is not commonly found in the country. In cities across the Bundesrepublik, heat plans are being drafted and refined to try and prepare for further extreme heat events in the near future.

Delivery van stuck in flood

A delivery van stranded in flood water during a storm surge near the fish market in Hamburg last winter. Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Bodo Marks
 

Warming oceans and mountains and more rain

On average, the seas around Europe’s coasts were warmer than at any time since at least 1980. 

READ ALSO: Colder winters and refugees – How changing ocean currents could impact Germany

It was also much too warm on the glaciers in 2023. “After the record ice loss in 2022, it was another exceptional year of loss in the Alps,” Copernicus and WMO wrote. In these two years, the glaciers in the Alps lost around 10 percent of their volume.

Interestingly, the excess meltwater may be boosting hydroelectricity production in the short term. According to the report, conditions for the production of green electricity in 2023 were very favourable, with its share of the total electricity mix at 43 percent, the highest seen so far.

Overall, seven percent more rain fell last year than average. It was one of the wettest years on record, the report said. 

In one third of the river network in Europe, water volumes have been recorded that exceeded the flood threshold. There were severe floods in Italy and Greece, among other places, and parts of northern Germany were affected at the end of the year.

Hamburg and the northern state of Schleswig-Holstein were among regions hardest hit by floods in Germany last year. Northern sections of the Elbe river rose high enough to submerge Hamburg’s fish market several times among other places.

READ ALSO: Germany hit by floods as October heat turns into icy spell

2024 likely to continue breaking heat records

The recent report by Copernicus and the World Meteorological Organization is in agreement with a UN report published last month, which noted that last year came at the end of “the warmest 10-year period on record” according to the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO).

“There is a high probability that 2024 will again break the record of 2023”, WMO climate monitoring chief Omar Baddour said, according to Science Alert.

Another year of record breaking high temperatures means Germany can likely expect more and longer heatwaves in the late spring, summer and early autumn seasons. Higher average temperatures are also correlated with an increase in extreme weather events like extreme storms and floods in parts of the country.

In drier parts of Europe it means an increase in droughts and wildfires.

With reporting by DPA.

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