EUROPE might suffer “catastrophic” consequences from climate change if it does not take urgent and decisive action to adapt to the risks, new EU analysis warned on Monday.
Areas in southern Europe are most at risk, the European Environment Agency (EEA) said in its first report on the climate risks facing the continent.
These dangers include fires, water shortages and impacts on agricultural production, while low-lying coastal areas face the threat of flooding, erosion and salt seawater intrusion.
“Many of these risks have reached critical levels and might become catastrophic without urgent and decisive action,” the agency said.
This does not mean that northern Europe has been spared negative impacts, as floods in Germany and forest fires in Sweden have shown in recent years.
“Extreme heat, drought, forest fires and floods, such as those experienced in recent years, will become increasingly severe in Europe even under optimistic global warming scenarios and affect living conditions across the continent,” the EEA warned.
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The report lists 36 climate-related risks in Europe, 21 of which require more urgent action, and eight are “especially urgent.”
Topping the list are risks to ecosystems, especially those related to coastal and marine ecosystems.
For example, the combination of heat waves along with acidification and oxygen depletion in the ocean as well as man-made factors such as pollution and eutrophication – meaning an excess of nutrients leading to the collapse of aquatic ecosystems – and fishing, threaten marine ecosystems, the report notes.
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“Growth in substantial biodiversity loss, including mass mortality events, and decline in ecosystem services,” it said.
According to the EEA, the top priority is that European governments and citizens agree to do more and faster.
“We need to do more, have stronger policies,” stressed Yla-Mononen.
Despite the warning, the body also acknowledged the “significant progress” that had been made “in understanding the climate risks faced and preparing,” among member countries.
“These events are the new normal,” EEA Director Leena Yla-Mononen said in a press conference before the report’s release. “This should be a wake-up call. The final wake-up call,” he added. (AFP/Z-3)
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