Europe should do extra in opposition to ‘catastrophic’ local weather dangers, warns research | EUROtoday

Issued on: 11/03/2024 – 00:31

1 min

Areas in southern Europe are most in danger, the European Environment Agency (EEA) mentioned in its first report on the local weather dangers the continent faces.

The risks embrace fires, water shortages and their results on agricultural manufacturing, whereas low-lying coastal areas face threats of flooding, erosion and saltwater intrusion.

“Many of these risks have already reached critical levels and could become catastrophic without urgent and decisive action,” the company mentioned.

That does not imply northern Europe is spared the detrimental influence, as floods in Germany and forest fires in Sweden have demonstrated lately.

“Extreme heat, drought, wildfires, and flooding, as experienced in recent years, will worsen in Europe even under optimistic global warming scenarios and affect living conditions throughout the continent,” the EEA warned.

The report lists 36 dangers associated to local weather in Europe, 21 of which demand extra quick motion and eight have been “particularly urgent.”

At the highest of the checklist have been dangers to ecosystems, primarily referring to coastal and marine ones.

For occasion, the mix of warmth waves in addition to acidification and oxygen depletion of the seas and different human-caused components reminiscent of air pollution and eutrophication — that means an extra of vitamins which collapses aquatic ecosystem — and fishing, threaten marine ecosystems, the report famous.

“This can result in substantial biodiversity loss, including mass mortality events, and declines in ecosystem services,” it mentioned.

European governments and populations unanimously recognising the dangers and agreeing to do extra, quicker must be the precedence, based on the EEA.

“We need to do more, to have stronger policies,” Yla-Mononen careworn.

Despite the alarm, the company additionally acknowledged “considerable progress” made “in understanding the climate risks they are facing and preparing for them,” amongst member states.

“These events are the new normal,” EEA director Leena Yla-Mononen informed a press briefing forward of the report’s launch.

“It should be the wake-up call. The final wake-up call,” she added.

(AFP)