“Extreme events have always happened, but because of climate change, they are becoming more frequent” and more expensive, he said. Professor Carraro of CMCC@Ca’Foscari is among experts on New York Times longform on Emilia Romagna floodings.

Professor Carlo Carraro of Ca’ Foscari University of Venice and CMCC Foundation – Centro Euro-Mediterraneo sui Cambiamenti Climatici, was among top experts interviewed by New York Times in an article focusing on the recent floodings in Emilia Romagna, Italy.

In May 2023, a series of floods happened in the area around the cities of Bologna, Cesena, Forlì, Faenza, Ravenna, and Rimini, in the Emilia-Romagna region in Northern Italy, killing 17 people and displacing 50,000 others. In just two weeks the same amount of rain which typically falls in several months was registered, causing river floods and landslides, causing major damages to crops and infrastructure, and flooding of more than 40 cities.

The New York Times article features comments from Italian experts, including the Italian civil protection minister, Nello Musumeci, Francesco Violo, the president of the National Council of Geologists, and Barbara Lastoria, a hydraulic engineer. It highlights how experts have attributed the heavy rains and floods to climate change, but also stressing the impact of “decades of urbanization and neglect” in laying “the groundwork for a calamity”.

“Prevention, maintenance, protection pay off significantly,” said Carraro to New York Times, highlighting how every euro invested in these policies equaled five or six euros in averted damage. “Extreme events have always happened, but because of climate change, they are becoming more frequent” and more expensive, he said.

Carlo Carraro is President Emeritus and Professor of Economics at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice. He holds a Ph.D. from Princeton University. He was President of the University of Venice from 2009 to 2014 and President of the European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists (EAERE) in 2018-2019. He is a member of the Bureau of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and of the Strategic Board of the Euro Mediterranean Centre for Climate Change (CMCC). He is also President of the National Committee on Climate Change Impacts on Infrastructures and Mobility and a member of DG ECFIN High Level Advisory Group in Brussels.

He is also a Fellow of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists (AERE) and of the European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists (EAERE). He is a member of the World Economic Forum (WEF) Expert Network and a Research Fellow of CEPR, London, CESifo, Munich and CEPS, Brussels.