Europe must spend billions now or face mounting climate disaster costs, EU warns

 

Europe must spend billions now or face mounting climate disaster costs, EU warns

 

A nightmare summer of fires, droughts and heatwaves should force governments to invest in climate proofing, says EU climate chief Wopke Hoekstra.

 

Exclusive

August 24, 2026 6:00 am CET

By Zia Weise

https://www.politico.eu/article/eu-climate-adaptation-spending-wopke-hoekstra-wildfires-heat-waves/

 

BRUSSELS — This summer’s extremes show that governments must spend more on beefing up defenses against global warming or face an even steeper bill in the years to come, the European Union’s climate chief told POLITICO.

 

Successive heat waves, worsening drought and monstrous wildfires have caused enormous damage over the past few months, with some economists estimating that the losses will wipe out the EU’s modest GDP growth for 2026.

 

This year’s impacts are in line with projections. The European Commission estimates that climate-related disasters already knock 1 percent off the bloc's GDP, rising to 2.3 percent by 2050 and 7 percent by the end of the century. Insurers warn that cumulative GDP losses in the most exposed EU countries could hit up to 7 percent between this year and 2030.

 

The EU’s Climate Commissioner Wopke Hoekstra warns that to prevent costs from spiraling further, European governments must start investing massive sums in measures to climate-proof their countries, known as adaptation.

 

“I think we’ve now had enough reality checks that adaptation spending is not a luxury,” he said in an interview.

 

“It’s a crystal-clear necessity," he added. "Let’s get into action mode, and that has ramifications for the European budget, for national budgets … but the reality is that if you don’t, you will be paying more.”

 

Pay now or pay more later

The Commission said in January that the EU needs to invest around €70 billion each year in adaptation measures such as flood prevention and urban cooling.

 

Yet, for now, EU governments collectively spend an estimated €29 billion annually, while climate-related damages to infrastructure and material assets average around €45 billion every year.

 

Many European governments are dealing with limited fiscal space, Hoekstra acknowledged. But he insisted that money invested now will prevent worse economic headaches in the future.

 

“None of us has a money tree in his or her backyard,” Hoekstra said. “But in the end, a budget is a reflection of your policy priorities. And what the wildfires and floodings are telling us is, you better make this into a priority because otherwise you’re going to pay even more dearly — in terms of health effects, economic effects, societal effects.”

 

A recent World Resources Institute study found that every dollar invested in adaptation measures generates $10 in benefits over a decade. And the United Nations estimates that every $1 billion invested in coastal protection can avert $14 billion in economic damage.

 

Governments that opt not to make those investments should “not be surprised if you have more areas that you will not be able to insure,” Hoekstra warned. “And don’t be surprised if the economic damage goes up and up and up.”

 

European countries and Brussels have improved their summer disaster planning, said Hoekstra, citing the hundreds of emergency firefighters stationed in high-risk areas under Commission coordination and the planned expansion of the EU’s firefighting fleet.

 

“We have dramatically stepped this up. We now have almost 800 men and women from firefighter brigades that can be flexibly employed in the places where the proverbial shit hits the fan,” he said.

 

But, he acknowledged, “I don’t think any one of us can be complacent. We need to do significantly more, at regional, national and European level.”

 

Enough reality checks

The Commission is currently drafting an EU-wide adaptation package, dubbed the Integrated Framework for European Climate Resilience, and plans to unveil a set of measures in October or November.

 

The framework will include three key pillars, Hoekstra said. First, a common scenario that all EU governments should plan for, something the Commission’s scientific advisers suggested earlier this year.

 

Second, greater clarity on where the responsibilities lie — at municipal, regional, national or EU level — when it comes to climate-proofing Europe. “Who is responsible for the firefighting? Who is responsible for the financing? Who is responsible for planting trees in cities? Who is responsible for health care measures for the elderly? And so on,” he said.

 

Finally, the Commission wants to ensure adaptation planning is “mainstreamed” throughout European and national policymaking, meaning that climate resilience would be taken into account at every step of decision-making on infrastructure investments, legislation and more.

 

Plus, the EU must continue striving for lower carbon emissions at home and abroad to avoid the worst climate impacts. But even at the current level of global warming, governments must prepare for more disasters, Hoekstra noted.

 

“Even if we would be able to kill all emissions tomorrow, we still would be having a number of very rough summers ahead,” he said.

 

“We cannot afford to see the summer of 2027 or the summer of 2028 as another reality check. We've had enough of these. We know what is happening. We know what's coming,” he added. “There can be no hope in just keeping doing the same and then hoping that the results will be better. That will be naïve and in my view unacceptable.”