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WEATHER

Why Germany is ‘among top three’ countries affected by climate change

Summers of heat and drought have brought climate change to the top of Germany's agenda. Now an international report shows how the damage compares to other countries.

Why Germany is 'among top three' countries affected by climate change

According to a new report by the development organization Germanwatch, the Bundesrepublik was last year one of the top three countries most severely affected by extreme weather. 

Due to the heat waves, storms and droughts of 2018, Germany was ranked third behind Japan and the Philippines in the Global Climate Risk Index 2020. Germanwatch presented their findings on Wednesday at the World Climate Conference in Madrid. 

It’s the first time Germany has climbed to such a high position in the ranking. In the long-term index, which evaluates the years 1999 to 2018, Puerto Rico, Myanmar and Haiti were the countries worst affected by storms, floods and droughts.

READ ALSO: 'The future is already here': How climate change is affecting Germany

Heatwaves were one major cause of damage in 2018. Of the 10 most affected countries in 2018, Germany, Japan and India suffered from extended periods of heat.

“The Climate Risk Index shows that climate change has disastrous impacts especially for poor countries, but also causes increasingly severe damage in industrialized countries like Japan or Germany,” said David Eckstein of Germanwatch.

“Countries like Haiti, Philippines and Pakistan are repeatedly hit by extreme weather events and have no time to fully recover. That underlines the importance of reliable financial support mechanisms for poor countries like these not only in climate change adaptation, but also for dealing with climate-induced loss and damage.”

As The Local has reported, the effects of global warming are becoming increasingly noticeable in Germany. The average air temperature in Germany increased by 1.5C between 1881 and 2018, according to the government's Climate Monitoring Report, published recently. In the past five years alone, the temperature has gone up by 0.3C.

Source: Germanwatch

The annually published Climate Risk Index is based on data from insurer Munich Re and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

It analyzes to what extent countries and regions have been affected by impacts of weather-related loss events (storms, floods, heat waves etc.). The most recent data available – for 2018, and from 1999 to 2018 – were taken into account.

How can the world deal with cost of climate change?

Global warming makes extreme weather events such as droughts and storms more frequent and stronger, the study says. In the past 20 years, altogether, about 495 000 people died as a direct result of more than 12,000 extreme weather events globally and losses between 1999 and 2018 amounted to around $3.54 trillion (in purchasing power parities).

READ ALSO: Climate crisis: Berlin to be 'as hot as Australia' in 30 years

In the long-term index, seven of the 10 most severely affected countries are poorer countries. How the devastating damage in these countries can be managed financially is one of the topics at this year's UN Climate Conference in Madrid, which began on Monday and lasts two weeks.

The below map shows the countries most affected last year.

“In countries like Haiti, the Philippines and Pakistan, we see such recurrent extreme weather conditions at such short intervals that these countries have little opportunity to recover from weather disasters,” said Vera Künzel, one of the authors.

Poor countries need help not only to adapt to climate change, but also to deal with unavoidable damage and losses, Künzel added.

“The climate summit needs to address the so far lacking of additional climate finance to help poorest people and countries in dealing with losses and damages,” Laura Schäfer of Germanwatch added.

“They are hit hardest by climate change impacts because they lack the financial and technical capacity to deal with the losses and damages.

“The climate conference therefore needs to result in a decision to regularly determine the support needs of vulnerable countries for future damages.”

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PROPERTY

Why it’s hard to find an apartment with air conditioning in Germany

When temperatures start to get up to 30C or more in Germany, a familiar debate begins. It often starts with a simple question, asked by a new arrival to the country: “Why don’t German homes have air conditioning?”

Why it's hard to find an apartment with air conditioning in Germany

The tendency to avoid air conditioning (A/C) is not uniquely a German trend. Europeans tend to use A/C less than residents in the US, and some countries in Asia.

But as temperatures have crept slowly upwards due to climate change, and the number of hot days has increased, Europe has seen an increase in demand for air conditioning. Across the continent A/C use has more than doubled since 1990.

But A/C is used much more commonly in countries that see higher temperatures like Spain, Italy or France, whereas it is still uncommon in homes in Germany.

So why does Germany tend to lack air conditioning, and why aren’t more Germans interested in installing it?

It’s not a ‘hot’ country

Ask a German why air conditioning is so rare in the country, and you’ll probably hear some version of “Well Germany is not such a hot country.” Which may be true generally, but is a less than convincing explanation if you hear it on a sunny summer day when it’s 35C outside.

But it is worth keeping in mind that while Germany does have warm summers, often with at least a couple heat waves, super hot days are few compared to warmer countries, like those in southern Europe. 

Given Germany’s weather can really only be described as hot for a few weeks out of each year, and considering the costs of installing and running air conditioning, most Germans figure it’s not worth it.

attic with sliding window

A sliding attic window is designed to help tenants cool off, but it won’t help to open windows during the hottest part of the day. Photo: pa/obs LiDEKO | LiDEKO

This isn’t only reserved for homes, but extends to plenty of public spaces including office and government buildings, and to some public transportation as well. 

In fact, schools and workplaces do occasionally call it quits during hot weather spells in an event called hitzefrei.

READ ALSO: Ditching AC for ‘Hitzefrei’ – Taking on the German summer as a Californian

Air conditioning is energy intensive and expensive

The other side of the argument against air conditioning is that both installation and operating costs can be expensive. Air conditioning tends to be energy inefficient, so using it can significantly increase your utility bill.

From an environmental point of view, all the energy used for air conditioning, if Germany was to start installing A/C at scale, would add to the country’s energy demand and greenhouse gas emissions – both of which Germany is already struggling to cut down year after year as part of its climate goals.

It is an ironic feature of traditional air conditioning that it creates a negative feedback loop: More people rely on air conditioning to stay cool as weather warms, but weather continues warming in part due to emissions from air conditioning.

That said there are cases where access to air conditioning can save lives. In particular elderly people and those with health-risks are prone to heat sensitivity. So while it’s probably good that not every house in Germany has A/C, it’s important that hospitals and some other buildings in a given city do.

READ ALSO: How German cities are adapting to rising temperatures

‘Cold air makes you sick’

Along with the reasonable (if debatable) reasons for the lack of A/C in Germany, there are also cultural factors.

On the social media website Reddit, a user posted the question, “Will more places in Germany start using air conditioning?”

One of the top comments read, “Don’t you know cold air makes you sick….says Oma (the German word for grandma). 

While that comment comes off a bit tongue in cheek, it touches on a real and deeply-ingrained belief that persists among parts of the German population: That exposure to cold, or even maybe a cool breeze, is bad for your health. This includes a draft in your house, called a Durchzug in German.

For this reason, the German Red Cross felt compelled to debunk the Durchzug health myth in a hot weather warning they issued in 2019.

a heat pump is installed

An employee inspects a heat pump in front of a newly built residential building. Heat pumps are also effective for cooling. Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Bernd Weißbrod

What can you do about the heat?

Regardless of where you stand on the air conditioning debate, if you don’t have a personal A/C unit at home presently, the best way to endure the hottest days of summer may be to take a few tips from the locals.

During my first summer in Germany, I took to leaving the windows open throughout the day, thinking that the occasional warm breeze was the best relief I could hope for at home. But one day my landlord came by and asked me why I was suffering in the heat with the windows open.

He recommended that I instead leave the windows open at night or in the early morning to get some fresh cool air inside, and then keep all the windows closed through the heat of the day. I tried this strategy the next day, and immediately felt that he was right.

Compared to homes in the US, for instance, German homes tend to be very well insulated. This can be equally important in the summer as it means that the interior tends to stay cooler than the outside (as long as you keep it mostly sealed off).

On extremely hot days, you might even keep your shutters down to shade the windows and prevent the sun from shining through.

Of course the effectiveness of the strategy depends on having a home that’s well insulated, including double paned windows and well-sealed doors etc. If you feel that the inside of your house is getting as warm or warmer than the outside, then it’s probably time to open up the windows or go outside and sit in the shade.

Fans are also useful. Best is a ceiling fan designed to rotate counter-clockwise to push air downward, which can maximise wind chill within a home, but floor fans can also help.

Ironically, in the longer term it may actually be heat pumps that help Germany to modernise its cooling infrastructure. 

Heat pumps maximise the efficiency of heating systems by moving warm air around a building, and they can also work with cooling systems. Many heat pump systems on the market today are already built to support both heating and cooling functions, and they are much more energy efficient than classic air condition systems.

READ ALSO: Who can apply for Germany’s new heat pump grants for homes?

Unfortunately for tenants with no heat pump and no A/C, the best you can do for now is take notes of cool places in your city where you can relax in the shade or in the water during the hottest hours or the hottest days.

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