Are climate changes the cause of catastrophic floods in Central Europe?

Central Europe is experiencing its worst flooding in twenty years, triggered by intense rain from Storm Boris, which has caused damage from Romania to Poland. On Tuesday, the number of victims in Poland, Hungary, Romania and Austria increased to at least 21 persons, while many other persons are missing. Tens of thousands of people were forced to leave their homes across Central Europe, including 15,000 on the Czech and Polish borders.

Polish Prime Minister Donal Tusk declared a state of natural disaster in the hardest-hit southern regions of the country. The Polish Ministry of Defense announced that 14,000 troops had been deployed to the affected areas. In Wroclaw, residents were reinforcing river banks ahead of the expected peak of water levels on Thursday. Hungary, Croatia and Slovakia are also on high alert due to forecasts of further rising Danube levels due to heavy rain.

More heavy rain is expected in Italy, with the regions of Emilia-Romagna and Lazio under a yellow alert. Firefighters in Pescara, in the Abruzzo region, have received hundreds of calls for help related to flooding.

Is climate change responsible for catastrophic floods in Central Europe?

Polish Deputy Minister for Climate Urszula Sara Zielińska identified climate change as the cause of the disaster. After the extreme floods of 1997, such events were thought to occur only once in a thousand years, but now we are experiencing them after 26 years. "It's a clear cause and it's called climate change," she added.

Extreme weather is becoming more common in Europe. The EU warned that similar disasters are evidence of climate change, which will become the norm without quick action. Crisis management commissioner Janez Lenarcic warned in Strasbourg that Europe must adapt to the new reality and warned of the rising costs of such disasters, with damages in Europe averaging more than €50 billion a year in 2021 and 2022.

Nicolò Wojewoda calls on world leaders to take urgent measures. He pointed out that delay and inaction in the field of climate policy cost human lives. "How many more deadly disasters do we have to experience before we take action?" he asks, stressing that these events should be the yardstick by which actions are judged in upcoming international negotiations. (Co2AI)