All official European Union website addresses are in the europa.eu domain.
See all EU institutions and bodies
An official website of the European Union | How do you know?
Environmental information systems
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 recent years, Germany has experienced an increase in economic losses due to extreme weather events. The notable peak can be attributed to extreme rainfall in July 2021, which resulted in flooding that caused significant damage along the catchment areas of the River Moselle and River Rhine. The total insured value of the damage amounted to EUR 11 billion, making 2021 the most expensive year in the past 50 years in terms of damages paid by insurers.
A recent national study concluded that extreme weather events in Germany resulted in economic losses amounting to a minimum of EUR 145 billion in damage between 2000 and 2021, with EUR 80 billion of this occurring since 2018 alone. Researchers predict that, by the middle of the century, economic losses due to extreme weather could range from EUR 280 billion to EUR 900 billion, depending on the extent of global warming.
Box on data or methodological concern:
The overall trend of this indicator aligns with national data. However, the dataset cannot be verified because, unlike other indicators, it is not provided by EU Member States. Instead, it originates from a commercial provider, whose calculation methods and assumptions are not transparently documented.
References and footnotes
- ↵van Rüth, P., Schönthaler, K., von Andrian-Werburg, S., Wolf, M. and Gabriel, M., 2023 monitoring report on the German strategy for adaptation to climate change, German Environment Agency, Dessau-Roßlau, 2023, https://www.umweltbundesamt.de/publikationen/2023-monitoring-report-on-the-german-strategy-for.
- ↵Prognos, ‘Estimation of costs resulting from climate change in Germany’, Prognos website, 16 March 2023, accessed 11 June 2025, https://www.prognos.com/de/projekt/bezifferung-von-klimafolgekosten-deutschland.