Europe is world's fastest-heating continent, report warns
Europe should brace for more deadly heatwaves driven by climate change, said a sweeping report on Monday, noting the world's fastest-warming continent was some 2.3 degrees Celsius hotter last year than in pre-industrial times.
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A joint report by the UN's World Meteorological Organization and EU scientists said Europe was the fastest warming continent on the planet, with the temperature having risen by about twice the global average since the 1980s.
Heatwaves led to some 16,000 excess deaths last year in Europe, while floods and storms accounted for most of the $2 billion in damages from weather and climate extremes, said the report.
"Unfortunately, this cannot be considered a one-off occurrence or an oddity of the climate," said Dr Carlo Buontempo, director of the EU's Copernicus Climate Change Service.
"Our current understanding of the climate system and its evolution informs us that these kinds of events are part of a pattern that will make heat stress extremes more frequent and more intense across the region," he said.
Scientists have warned of record high temperatures ahead across the world as excess warming from climate change mixes with a tip towards El Nino.
The reason Europe is warming faster than other continents is related to the fact that a large part of the continent is in the sub-Arctic and Arctic – the fastest warming region on Earth – as well as changes in climate feedbacks, scientists have said.
Climate change is taking a major human, economic and environmental toll in Europe, the fastest-warming continent of the world.
— World Meteorological Organization (@WMO) June 19, 2023
This is the #StateOfClimate in Europe. https://t.co/jlwJEbp6Qr pic.twitter.com/k9madD0vxM
Last year, severe and extreme marine heatwaves were reported across parts of the Mediterranean, Baltic and Black Seas while glacier melt was the highest on record, the report added.
Overall, the average temperature for Europe in 2022 was between the second and fourth highest on record, it said.
But in what it called a sign of hope, renewable energy accounted for more of the EU's electricity (22.3 percent) than polluting fossil gas (20 percent) for the first time last year.
The report said this was due to a combination of factors, including a significant increase in installed solar power last year.
Read also:
- World investing more in solar than oil as investment in renewables soars
- June off to its hottest start on record between El Niño and climate change
(with newswires)
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