1,1,2,3,- 1Risklayer GmbH, Karlsruhe, Germany (johannes@risklayer.com)
- 2Center for Disaster Management and Risk Reduction Technology (CEDIM) & IPF, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Karlsruhe, Germany
- 3ISER, Adelaide University, Adelaide, Australia.
- 4Center for Disaster Management and Risk Reduction Technology (CEDIM) & GPI, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Karlsruhe, Germany
- 5ISER, Adelaide University, Adelaide, Australia.
- 6Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam , Institute for Environmental Studies, Water & Climate Risk, Amsterdam, Netherlands.
Agriculture employs more than 1 in 4 people globally and is adversely affected by many factors including natural perils including drought, storms, hail, floods, earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.
In most countries in Europe, the agriculture industry contributes less than 3% of GDP, with around 1.5% total contribution to GDP across the EU. However, it employs around 4% of the population. In the East Asia-Pacific, there exists great variability, with countries like Australia and Japan having a relatively low contribution in the order of 1-2% of GDP, however certain nations are towards 30% of GDP, with an average of 5.5% of GDP. When excluding high income nations this increases to 8%. In terms of employment, at least 1 in 5 jobs are associated with agriculture across the EAP.
Beyond the employment and productivity issues with climate perils for agriculture, the irrigation, equipment, buildings and systems associated with agriculture as well as the connections to the tourism, finance and general commercial services sector are important to assess. This capital stock is characterized for Europe and East Asia-Pacific as part of this work.
The study of the European Investment Bank (fi-compass, 2025) in Europe analysed drought, hail, rain and frost damages across the EU agriculture industry with estimates around 28 billion euros per year in terms of overall damages (ca. 6% of annual crop and livestock production). Comparisons are made to existing studies in the East Asia-Pacific as well as other studies in Europe to gauge the extent of the potential exposure at risk for agriculture.
Preliminary numbers of employment, capital and production exposure from agriculture, and their relationship to damages and losses seen in past years in these two regions are produced in this abstract and act as a stepping stone to global modelling which can facilitate insurance solutions and risk sharing such as Pelaez et al. (2023). This abstract is a companion to the EGU abstracts of Maier et al. (2026) on an agritourism modelling and exposure framework and Daniell et al. (2026) on tourism region statistics globally.
fi-compass (2025) Insurance and Risk Management Tools for Agriculture in the EU - https://www.fi-compass.eu/library/market-analysis/insurance-and-risk-management-tools-agriculture-eu
Pelaez, A. G., Daniell, J.E., Douglas, R., Langdale, C., Krishnan, A.N. (2023): University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL). (2023). Risk sharing for Loss and Damage: Scaling up protection for the Global South. Cambridge, UK: University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership - Position Paper for COP28.
How to cite: Brand, J., Daniell, J., Maier, A., Schaefer, A., Romero, R., and Claassen, J.: Assessing the exposure to natural perils of the agriculture industry: a comparison of Europe vs. East Asia-Pacific, EGU General Assembly 2026, Vienna, Austria, 3–8 May 2026, EGU26-15930, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu26-15930, 2026.
