A warmer climate promotes evaporation, resulting in more moisture in the atmosphere, which leads to more frequent and more severe flooding.¹
These natural disasters not only destroy important infrastructure such as transport routes, healthcare and educational facilities, but also affect agriculture through crop losses and soil erosion. In addition, they pose a threat to human health by promoting the spread of waterborne diseases and making access to clean drinking water more difficult.²
Economically, floods cause significant damage. In 2022, extreme weather events led to global losses of around 264 billion US dollars.³ Countries with low and middle incomes are particularly affected, as they often lack the resources to implement adequate protective measures. However, the effects are also visible in Europe: in Germany alone, heavy rainfall events and floods in 2024 caused insurance losses of 2.6 billion euros, once again highlighting the growing financial burden of extreme weather.⁴
Between 2000 and 2020, an average of nearly 406 natural disasters were recorded worldwide per year. Between 2000 and 2019, a total of 3,245 recorded floods occurred worldwide.⁵
