Economists are desperately trying to put a €-number on climate disasters to inform policy makers.
Here, it's the ECB, EU Central Bank, funding a paper from a Mannheim Univ economist.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S001429212500131X
"Going NUTS: The regional impact of extreme climate events over the medium term" by Sehrish Usman et al 2025.
or https://www.ecb.europa.eu//pub/pdf/scpwps/ecb.wp3002~a77b495fa8.en.pdf
Some thoughts.
"In high-income regions, [flood] is followed by more
investment...suggesting a reconstruction boom." But that boom is stolen from other activities that then don't occur – and non-occurrence isn't measured by economists:
*The 2021 flood damaged 600
railroad bridges. The repair raised GDP
but stole resources like raw material, workforce and funds
from much needed maintenance (needed due to decade-long neglect in favour of car dependency)
and rail network extension.
(Book Flixbus-eq, guys!)
They then suggest
"build back better" as potential positive outcome of a destructive climate disaster [a factor economists also can't put a number on].
Dream on...
*Insurers involved in the 2021 flood demanded that home owners replace damaged gas boilers 1:1 and wouldn't pay for climate-friendly heatpumps.
*Rebuilding at risky site got permitted in all but 1 case.
In 2023, two thirds of Slovenia were flooded. That area in square km could have been the same as in the 2021 flood.
Below is the country of Slovenia overlaid over the 2021 flood area which also included east Belgium. https://thetruesize.com/#?borders=1~!MTQ0NzQ1MzM.MTMxMjM4NzA*MjEwMTAxNDE(MTc1NjA0MzQ~!CONTIGUOUS_US*MTAwMjQwNzU.MjUwMjM1MTc(MTc1)MQ~!IN*NTI2NDA1MQ.Nzg2MzQyMQ)Mg~!CN*OTkyMTY5Nw.NzMxNDcwNQ(MjI1)Mw~!SI*NzY2NzQ0.MTMzOTgwNzI)NA
Road and rail network in Slovenia might not have been as dense as in the 2021 area, so maybe only 200 rail bridges got damaged?
But what does this damage entail for the nation state of Slovenia?
How does the state budget cope with the unexpected expenses and what are the "costs" of delayed development projects?
The country also lies in the normal flight path of the summer jetstream that regularly hauls hot Mediterranean water and dumps it over cooler, elevated land.
Switzerland, Austria, Bavaria, Bulgaria, Romania, Croatia to name but a few EU states, all lie in that flight path.
Inundation of 2/3 of its infrastructure will become, or already is, who knows, a regular occurrence in Slovenia.
How long until the state is broke?
When will the young generation give up and [try to] flee to larger nation states?
How will policies change in those larger states due to influx of desperate climate refugees from EU countries?