Europeans endured the hottest summer on record last year, with wildfires, floods and intense heatwaves hitting the continent, a report by EU scientists released yesterday said.
Summer temperatures were about 1°C above the average over the past three decades, with Italy even recording temperatures of 48.8°C — a provisional record for the whole of Europe.
A particularly bad heatwave in the Mediterranean helped to ignite severe wildfires, which burned more than 800,000 hectares in countries including Greece, Turkey and Italy. Meanwhile, record rainfall led to devastating floods across Belgium and western Germany that killed more than 200 people.
Photo: Reuters
The report, published yearly by the EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service, draws on satellite observations, on-site measurements and computer models to provide an update on the state of the continent’s climate.
“We are facing a lot of challenges,” said Mauro Facchini, head of the Copernicus Unit at the EU.
He said last year’s record temperatures and extreme weather outlined an urgent need for countries to slash their greenhouse gas emissions to avoid further heating that would unleash more destructive weather events.
Globally, the past seven years have been the warmest on record, but last year was slightly cooler as temperatures were tempered by a La Nina weather pattern which cools sea temperatures in the north of the globe.
Though nations pledged under the 2015 Paris Agreement to limit global temperature rise to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels, most have failed to make sufficient progress and last year, global carbon emissions rebounded strongly following a temporary COVID-19 pandemic-induced dip.
Countries are already experiencing the consequences of inaction.
Climate scientists last year found that the disastrous flooding in western Europe last summer was made at least 20 percent more likely by climate change — reflecting a long-known principle that for every degree the atmosphere heats up, it can hold 7 percent more moisture, hiking the chance of heavy rain.
“This is one of the most visible and pronounced changes that we are seeing with global warming,” Vrije Universiteit Brussel climate scientist Wim Thiery said.
Governments have made some progress in adapting to such events by creating natural flooding areas, but cutting greenhouse gas emissions was the cheapest and most effective option to limit climate hazards, he said.
Last year’s sea surface temperatures in parts of the Baltic and Mediterranean sea were the highest since satellite records began in the early 1990s, the report said.
“Parts of the Baltic were 5°C above average, which is quite a lot for” the ocean, said Freja Vamborg, a senior climate scientist at Copernicus Climate Change Service.
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