Signs of hope in the horror of climate change in Europe Science

06/19/2023 at 2:17 PM

| Reading time: 2 minutes

In the context of the climate crisis, the European continent is warming at twice the speed of the world on average. The impact is getting more intense each year, according to the State of Europe Climate 2022 report. However, the authors also see a hopeful sign: the rapid expansion of renewable energies in the European Union for power generation. The World Weather Organization (WMO) and the European Union’s Climate Change Service Copernicus presented the report in Dublin at the Sixth European Conference on Adaptation to Climate Change.

Glacier melt was stronger than ever in 2022 and led to record mass loss, due to less snow in the winter, very warm summers and deposits of dust from the Sahara. She added that the rise in sea surface temperature, as in the eastern Mediterranean, the Baltic Sea, the Black Sea and the southern Arctic, was more than three times the global average. As a result, native species migrate and invasive species migrate, disrupting ecosystems and biodiversity.

Consequences of climate change in Europe

In western and southwestern Europe, some countries had the warmest year on record, according to the report. Record heat was one of the main causes of more people dying than the long-term average. According to the current understanding of the climate system, such events are expected to occur more often and could become more intense, said Carlo Bontempo, director of Copernicus.

Heat, drought and wildfires have made life difficult for many people in 2022, the report says. The average temperature was therefore 2.3 degrees above the pre-industrial average (1850 to 1900). Since the 1980s, temperatures on the continent have warmed about twice as much as the global average. In the Paris Climate Agreement, countries agreed to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels if possible.

According to the European Union Commission, nearly 40 percent of the electricity in the European Union was produced from renewable sources last year. It was followed by fossil fuels at 38.6 percent, followed by nuclear energy at a good 20 percent. The previous year, fossil fuels ranked first.

The current report also states that climate change is also important for nuclear power plants. The number of interruptions in nuclear power operations due to unfavorable weather conditions – such as low water levels in rivers or extreme heat – has increased over the past 30 years. Rigorous safety checks are necessary when determining whether plants are to continue operating.