4 March 2014 Insurance

Severe European floods to double by 2050

The frequency of severe flooding across Europe is set to double by 2050 leading to a fivefold increase in the annual economic losses resulting from floods, a study has found.

Climate change and an increase in rainfall will account for about a third of the losses with the rest of the increase being due to more properties and infrastructure falling within flood risk areas.

That was the conclusion of a report published in the journal Nature Climate Change. Its lead author was Brenden Jongman of VU University Amsterdam.

Flooding will also increasingly become a pan-European problem that does not respect territorial or national borders, the report said.

“Due to climate change and GDP growth, by 2050 a one-in-fifty-years-flood might be one in 30 years so the frequency of such losses increases dramatically - almost doubling," said Jongman.

The study said investment in flood protection measures could help reduce the magnitude of overall flood losses in the future.

By investing around 1.75 billion euros in such measures, Europe's annual flood losses could be reduced by around 7 billion euros, or around 30 percent, by 2050, it estimated.

Accountancy firm Deloitte said last week there were nearly 200,000 insurance claims in Britain in the last three months of 2013 due to storms and floods - the highest number of such claims over a fourth-quarter financial period for 10 years.

It has also estimated that the cost of repairing the damage caused could reach £1 billion.

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