The European Commission wants to create an annual day of commemoration for the victims of climate change, Commission Vice-President Frans Timmermans said on Thursday as Belgium and Germany remembered the deadly floods of Summer 2021.
Speaking just before an informal meeting of European environment ministers in Prague, the Dutch commissioner recalled that more than 220 people died a year ago in the floods that hit the two countries.
They fell prey to “unpredictable weather phenomena resulting from the climate crisis,” said Timmermans, who wants more attention for the victims. He referred to the 15-year-old daughter of a Commission colleague who died in the Ardennes last summer.
“I think it would be a good idea to commemorate at least one day a year the victims of these terrible weather phenomena,” he said, adding that he planned to table the proposal at the Prague meeting.
