Warming is faster today in Europe

NAPLES (AP).— Europe is the fastest warming continent and its temperatures are increasing almost twice as fast as the global average, reported two of the main climate monitoring organizations, which warned of the consequences for human health. human, melting glaciers and economic activity.

The World Meteorological Organization, part of the UN, and Copernicus, the climate agency of the European Union, pointed out in a joint report that the continent has the opportunity to develop specific strategies to accelerate the transition towards renewable resources such as wind energy, solar and hydroelectricity in response to climate change.

Last year, the continent generated 43% of its electricity from renewable resources, compared to 36% the previous year, the agencies say in their annual State of the Climate in Europe report. For the second year in a row, more energy was generated in Europe from renewable sources than from fossil fuels.

The most recent five-year averages reveal that current temperatures in Europe are 2.3 degrees above pre-industrial levels, compared to a global rise of 1.3 degrees, according to the study. The figure is just below the goal set in the 2015 Paris Agreement to contain global warming to 1.5 degrees.

“Europe recorded another year of rising temperatures and intensification of extreme weather events, including heat stress with record temperatures, forest fires, heat waves, loss of ice from glaciers and lack of snow,” said Elisabeth Hamdouch, deputy unit director for Copernicus at the EU executive commission.

The report is a complement to the World Meteorological Organization’s report on the state of the climate, which has been published every year for the last three decades, and which in its 2024 version included a “red alert” that the world is not doing enough to combat global warming.

Copernicus has reported that March was the 10th consecutive month to set a monthly record for high temperatures. The average ocean surface temperature off Europe reached its highest level in 2023, according to the European report.

This year’s European report focuses on the impact of high temperatures on human health, highlighting the increase in heat-related deaths across the continent. He said that last year more than 150 lives were lost as a direct result of storms, floods and forest fires.

The cost of climate-related economic losses in 2023 reached an estimated more than 13.4 billion euros (about $14.3 billion).

“Hundreds of thousands of people were affected by extreme climate events in 2023, which have been responsible for large continental losses, estimated at at least tens of billions of euros,” said Copernicus director Carlo Buontempo. “Unfortunately, these numbers are unlikely to decrease, at least in the near future.”

Extreme weather fueled heat waves, wildfires, droughts and floods, according to the report. High temperatures have contributed to the loss of glacier ice on the continent, including the Alps, which in the past two years have lost about 10% of their remaining glacier ice.

However, the study’s authors highlighted some exceptions, such as how temperatures remained below average in Scandinavia and Iceland even though they were above average across the continent as a whole.