But this pro-industry pivot is now crashing headfirst into Europe’s climate reality, with this summer’s extremes attesting to a fact highlighted by economists and activists alike: Global warming is bad for business.
“There is still a mindset, which is completely wrong, that there’s a trade-off between the economy and climate policy,” said Bob Ward, policy director at the London School of Economics’ Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change. “And we’ve known for a long time that the impacts of unmitigated climate change are going to cost us far more than any action.”
These past two months have seen countless Europeans losing loved ones to high temperatures, with more than 14,000 people dying during late June’s record-breaking heat wave alone. Nearly a half-million people fled from approaching flames without knowing whether they would have a home to return to, and hundreds eventually returned to ashes.
Aside from the human suffering, this summer will also take a toll on Europe’s fragile economy.
The cost of rebuilding from the megafires in Spain and France, as well as the blazes now raging in Greece, will run into the billions. Lost productivity due to heat is costing companies dearly; drought is destroying harvests; and power prices surge as low river levels deprive nuclear reactors of cooling water, bringing Hungary to the brink of an energy crisis.
“We’re seeing already how far-reaching the impact of these events on our economy is,” said Anders Levermann, a climate scientist at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research.
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