Germany’s largest property insurer, Allianz, is urging for faster progress in flood protection measures. According to the company’s CEO, Frank Sommerfeld, in an interview with the Tagesspiegel, “who spares on dike protection, is responsible for the catastrophes of the future.”
The Allianz claims that, after over a decade, only three percent of the measures from the national flood protection program, launched in response to the 2013 flood, have been completed. Five percent are in the final stages of completion, 14 percent are under construction and a mere eight percent are operational. More than three quarters of the projects have yet to begin.
“Not at this pace will we be finished in 2150” criticized Sommerfeld, who is responsible for property insurance in Germany and thus for the protection against natural disasters within the Allianz group.
The CEO rejected the idea of making homeowners mandatory to insure against natural disasters, a proposal currently being discussed in politics. Sommerfeld stated that such a requirement would not prevent a single damage. “We, as an insurer, the federal government, the states, the municipalities and the homeowners must all work together to ensure that damage does not occur in the first place and if it does, it should be as low as possible.”
Due to human-induced global warming, extreme precipitation events in Germany are becoming more frequent and intense. In Western Europe, heavy rainfall events have, on average, increased in likelihood by a factor of 1.2 to 9 due to the climate change. This, in turn, increases the likelihood of floods and high water levels, even in areas where they were previously uncommon.