Venise, Italy. Photograph: © SAF — Coastal Care
Excerpts;
Coastal zones in Europe contain large human populations, significant socio-economic activities and assets, and fragile ecosystems.
Coastal communities will face increasing risk of floods as climate change could cause extreme sea levels to rise with one meter or more by 2100.
Coastal adaptation, however, could prevent 95% of the projected economic losses.
These findings come from a new JRC study published today in Nature Communication.
In the absence of climate action and with continued demographic pressure and urbanisation along coastlines, annual damages from coastal flooding in the EU and UK could increase sharply from €1.4 billion today to almost €1.6 trillion by 2100, with 3.9 million people exposed to coastal flooding every year.
The study underlines that coastal adaptation measures can protect Europe’s communities from coastal flooding while also being economically efficient…
