The European Environment Agency (EEA) today warned that Europe could confront “catastrophic” situations as a result of climate change.
“The extreme heat, drought, wildfires and floods that we have experienced in recent years in Europe will worsen, including in optimistic scenarios of global warming, and will affect living conditions across the continent,” writes the agency in a press release presenting its first report on the assessment of climate risks on the European continent.
“These events represent the new normal” insisted EEA’s director Leena Yla-Mononen during a press briefing. “They must also be a warning shot,” she said.
The study lists thirty-six major climate risks for Europe. Twenty-one of them require more immediate action and eight require urgent response.
First and foremost among them are the risks linked to ecosystems, mainly marine and coastal.
For example, the combined effects of marine heat waves, acidification and oxygen depletion of the seas and other anthropogenic factors (pollution
, fishing, etc.) threaten the functioning of marine ecosystems, the report noted. “This may result in substantial loss of biodiversity, including mass mortality events,” it added.
The EEA said that the priority is for European governments and populations to unanimously recognize the risks and agree to do more, faster.
For the EEA, the most exposed areas are southern Europe (fires, water shortage and its effects on agricultural production, impact of heat on outdoor work and health) and coastal regions in low altitude (flooding, erosion, salt water intrusion).
However, northern Europe is not spared, the institution underlined, as evidenced by the recent floods in Germany or the forest fires in Sweden, the EEA said.
Source: Oman News Agency