Germany (drought)

Deaths in June 2022 were 8% above normal, largely attributed to heat-related cardiac events (Destatis, 2022a). By mid-July, this anomaly reached +16% to +23% (Destatis, 2022b).

Furthermore, Brandenburg also reported that, by August 2022, there was already a twofold increase in wildfires compared to 2021 (RBB24, 2022).

As the water levels of Germany’s Rhine River declined – dropping as much as 6cm over a 24-hour period on August 7th (Al Jazeera, 2022) – cargo ships were forced to reduce their transport volumes by as much as 75%. This leads to net costs rising as much as 500% for the same value of goods (Tagesschau, 2022).

The Rhine is a major shipping channel, handling as much as 80% of inland shipping of raw materials, from petrochemicals to grain (Ellyatt, 2022, Tagesschau, 2022).

These delays in shipping had serious implications on both the German and European economy, with effects cascading to other regions. Additionally, stressors – such as droughts – on European rivers are being considered as possible causes of the mass fish die-off in the nearby Oder River (Umweltbundesamt, 2022).

However, it is still somewhat unclear how droughts, high temperatures and low water levels affect critical European ecosystems in the long term.

Read more about the socioeconomic impacts of climate change here.

Read more about extreme weather here.