Extreme climate events such as flooding and drought cost Malta €62 million between 1980 and 2013, a new report by the European Environment Agency has found.
The latest four-yearly report, published last week, estimates that €400 billion were lost across Europe in the same period due to extreme events such as floods and heatwaves, which are expected to increase in frequency due to the effects of climate change.
The worst-affected countries in absolute terms were Germany (€79 billion), Italy (€60 billion) and France (€53 billion) but Malta was surpassed by only four countries in terms of spending per square kilometre.
Total losses rose from €7.6 billion a year in the 1980s to €13.7 billion in the 2000s as effects accelerated.
This region is already experiencing large increases in heat extremes and decreases in precipitation
The report provides further evidence that climate change poses increasingly severe risks to ecosystems, human health and the economy throughout Europe, with the Mediterranean region expected to be one of the worst hit as effects intensify. “This region is already experiencing large increases in heat extremes and decreases in precipitation and river flows, which have heightened the risk of more severe droughts, lower crop yields, biodiversity loss and forest fires,” the report states.
More frequent heatwaves and changes in the distribution of climate-sensitive infectious diseases are also expected to increase risks to human health, according to the EEA.
Malta endured the driest winter on record last year, slipping into desert classification with an all-time record low of just 265 millimetres of rainfall between September and September.
The unprecedented drought had wide-reaching effects on agricultural production as well as exacerbating reliance on groundwater aquifers, which are growing increasingly salinised due to reliance on boreholes in place of rainwater.
Local research has suggested that some 6,300 hectares pertaining to wheat, olive and vine crop types – 55 per cent of Malta’s total utilisable agricultural area – could be rendered economically unsustainable due to climate change.
Other analysis has also suggested economic impacts on the fishing industry, tourism and transport, among others.
“Climate change will continue for many decades to come,” EEA executive director Hans Bruyninckx said on the publication of the report.
“The scale of future climate change and its impacts will depend on the effectiveness of implementing our global agreements to cut greenhouse gas emissions but also ensuring that we have the right adaptation strategies and policies in place to reduce the risks from current and projected climate extremes,” he added.