The European
Green Deal
What if we do not act?
“The cost of the transition will be big, but
the cost of non-action will be much bigger.”
Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission
December 2019
#EUGreenDeal
Without action on climate change, the
EU will see, in the lifetime of our children:
Pollution
400,000
premature deaths
per year today due to air pollution.
Heat and drought
90,000
annual deaths as a
result of heatwaves1
660,000
additional asylum
applications per year in
the EU at 5°C temperature
increase2
16%
of species at risk
of extinction at 4.3°C
temperature increase3
Source: European Environment Agency,
Air quality in Europe - 2019 report
Source: (1) European Commission’s Joint Research Centre PESETA IV, in press; (2) A. Missirian & W. Schlenker, Asylum applications respond to
temperature fluctuations, Science, Vol. 358, Issue 6370, pp. 1610-1614, 2017; (3) IPBES 2019, Global Assessment
Water and flooding
40%
less available water
in southern regions
of the European Union
Half a million
people exposed to river
flooding each year
2.2 million
people exposed to
coastal inundation
each year
The longer we wait, the harder it
becomes to reach low temperature
targets and the more expensive the
necessary efforts will become.
Economics
€190 billion
annual losses projected for a 3℃
increase in global average temperature
Globally, the number of people at risk
of being forced from their homes by
river flooding could increase to
50 milliona year
Climate change could lead to a
20%food price rise in 2050
Economic costs of heat-related
mortality could amount to more than
€40 billion per year 
© Associated Press
Source: European Commission’s Joint Research Centre,
PESETA IV, in press
Source: COACCH, The economic cost of climate change in Europe, 2018
Source: Ciscar et al., 2014: Climate impacts in Europe,
the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre
PESETA II project
Source: Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre,
Assessing the impacts of climate change on flood
displacement risk, 2019
Print ISBN978-92-76-13591-3 doi:10.2775/13641 NA-03-19-926-EN-C
PDF ISBN978-92-76-13574-6 doi:10.2775/686888 NA-03-19-926-EN-N