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The indicator shows total economic losses from weather- and climate-related extreme events (such as windstorms, flooding, heatwaves, cold spells, droughts or wildfires) per country and per year (since 1980). A moving average for the previous 30 years is added because of the large interannual variability of the losses.
In Austria, economic losses per capita from weather and climate extremes were below the EU average between 1990 and 2001. However, they rose significantly after 2001, peaking in 2009 at EUR 88.8/capita, before gradually moving closer to the EU average. Between 1980 and 2023, the majority of total losses from weather- and climate-related extremes resulted from hydrological events, followed by meteorological events, heatwaves and other climatological events. Looking at 2024, climate-related economic losses are expected to have increased again due to Storm Boris, which caused heavy rainfall and flooding in central Europe from 14 September to 21 September. The economic impact of Storm Boris in Austria is estimated at around EUR 1.3 billion, covering damage to private households, inventories and capital stock and also interruptions of firms’ operations, but excluding infrastructure losses.
References and footnotes
- ↵Climate ADAPT, ‘Economic losses and fatalities’, Climate-ADAPT website, accessed 11 December 2024, https://climate-adapt.eea.europa.eu/en/knowledge/economic-losses/economic-losses-and-fatalities?activeTab=004fcd51-8a60-4989-8a60-8aba834bae29.
- ↵Friesenbichler, K., Ialongo, L., Klimek, P., Renhart, P. and Sinabell, F., ‘A rapid assessment of the economic impact of the central European flood 2024 on Austria’, WIFO Research Briefs, No 14, Austrian Institute of Economic Research, Vienna, 2024, accessed 10 December 2024, https://www.wifo.ac.at/publication/273102/.