Floods Devastate Germany and Other Nations Amid Climate Crisis

This month, southern Germany faced severe flooding due to relentless rain, leading to dam bursts and mass evacuations. This event is part of a global trend of extreme floods affecting countries like the UAE, Oman, Kenya, and Brazil. Rising global temperatures, driven by fossil fuel combustion, increase the frequency and severity of rainfall, causing more floods.
Scientific principles explain that warmer air holds more moisture, leading to heavy precipitation when it rains. Since the pre-industrial era, global temperatures have risen by 1.3 degrees Celsius, increasing rainfall and flooding, especially in high-altitude regions. Studies show that each 1-degree Celsius rise boosts air’s moisture capacity by 7%, and increases precipitation extremes in the Northern Hemisphere by 15%.
Climate change is making heavy downpours more frequent, with events that were once a decade occurring more often and with greater intensity. For example, last year, Europe experienced 7% more rain than usual, leading to significant floods in several countries. Attribution science links a quarter of record rainfalls in the past decade to climate change, with Germany’s recent floods being part of this trend.
Floods are devastating, impacting lives, infrastructure, and economies. Since 2000, the population exposed to floods has grown by 24%, with 1.8 billion people at risk of severe floods. Europe, particularly Germany, France, and the Netherlands, has a high number of people at risk. Most affected are low- and middle-income countries, especially in South and East Asia, with China and India having the highest exposure.
Future projections indicate that without limiting global warming, extreme flooding will worsen. The IPCC predicts that with a 2-degree Celsius rise, heavy rains will be 14% wetter and more frequent. If temperatures rise to 4 degrees Celsius, such events could occur almost three times as often. In Europe, without adaptation measures, a 3-degree Celsius increase by 2100 could result in €48 billion in annual damages and triple the flood-exposed population.
This report highlights the urgent need for climate action to mitigate the rising risk of extreme flooding globally.