Following a summer marked by deadly heatwaves and devastating wildfires across Europe, Volt MEP Kai Tegethoff, member of the Committee on Environment, is calling for binding climate resilience checks across the EU budget, dedicated national funding for climate adaptation and a European backstop to ensure that households are not left without insurance as climate risks increase.
More than 36,000 people are estimated to have died from heat this summer, and wildfires and other extreme weather caused economic damage estimated at €180 billion across Europe in a single season. Germany alone suffered losses equivalent to around 1% of its GDP.
The cost is immense
“The wildfires are out and the temperatures have dropped. Media attention is already turning elsewhere, but the tragedy isn’t over. Across Europe, families have lost their homes and communities have been left to rebuild. The cost is immense, both for victims and local governments. Climate adaptation is not an abstract environmental policy – it is about whether people can live safely in their homes and whether they can still afford to insure them.”
Tegethoff criticised attempts by the political right to portray spending on climate resilience as an unnecessary burden, arguing that the costs of failing to prepare are already vastly higher.
“We are told that climate resilience is too expensive and that protecting homes and communities is red tape. But when insurers pull out and declare entire areas uninsurable, somebody still pays the bill. Without public action, that somebody is ordinary people.”
Promise must be backed with money
Tegethoff is calling for binding climate-resilience checks across the entire EU budget, ensuring that European spending does not create or reinforce vulnerabilities to heat, drought, flooding and wildfires. He also wants dedicated national adaptation funding and a European backstop against growing climate-related insurance gaps, so that families are not left alone when private insurers withdraw from high-risk areas.
Tegethoff, who also stressed the urgency of stronger European action during a European Parliament debate, is calling on Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to put climate adaptation at the heart of her State of the Union address on Wednesday and to back political commitments with concrete funding and binding measures.
“Adaptation is the cheapest protection we will ever buy. Europe can either invest now in protecting people, homes and infrastructure, or pay many times over after every heatwave, fire and flood. Ursula von der Leyen should make climate resilience a priority in the State of the Union. And that promise must be backed with money.”
For Tegethoff, this summer has demonstrated that relying on emergency responses and local solidarity alone is not enough. Communities across Europe have repeatedly had to evacuate neighbours, fight fires and rebuild after disasters themselves.
“El pueblo salvando al pueblo – people saving people – should not be a tragic necessity. European solidarity means making sure communities are prepared before disaster strikes. We need to put public money into people’s future now, rather than paying for preventable destruction afterwards.”