As insurers and investors begin to see environmental and ecological threats as a serious corporate risk, new figures from Southern Europe prove extreme weather is biting into profitability.
It’s the news climate experts have told us to expect for decades now — wildfires, floods and droughts are costing Europe €50 billion annually.
The world’s fastest-warming continent now endures extreme heatwaves each summer, spreading as far north as Scandinavian and the British Isles, with its southernmost countries, which have traditionally had the hottest conditions, bearing the least bearable brunt.
Now data shared by Mitiga Solutions and Endeavour Spain in a report, The High Stakes of Climate Inaction in Spain, which incudes SMEs, startups, and large enterprises, shows that 45% of organisations responded to confirm they had experienced financial disruption. Losses ranged from under €10,000 to more than €500,000, with four organisations reporting the latter from a single climate event. More worrying still, only 29% said they had completed climate-related risk assessments, despite the average ‘concern score’ coming out as three-out-of-five.
Not only do the numbers reveal major discrepancies between the real life impact of the environmental crisis and corporate preparedness, they can be taken as a serious warning to many other European nations which have so far had to cope with less regular extreme weather events. This is backed up by the World Economic Forum’s Risks Report 2025, which positioned the environment — and climate change in particular — as the most likely and most impactful threat facing the global economy. The analysis suggests that for every dollar invested in mitigation and adaptation, society will yield $10.50 in benefits over the following decade.
‘The financial implications of climate change for companies all around the world, but particularly in Europe, have never been more glaring – as proven by the fact 45% of companies in Spain have already experienced losses,’ said Dr. Alejandro Martí, CEO and Co-Founder of Mitiga Solutions. ‘Less commonly known is the potential to unlock value in the coming years by taking a proactive approach to climate-change readiness. Companies that assess and prepare today will be better positioned to protect operations, secure insurance, and make more resilient investment decisions.’
Image: Pasi Jormalainen / Unsplash
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