PlanetArk 29 Sep 08;
Europe is warming faster than the world average and governments need to invest to help citizens adapt to a global warming, according to a study on Monday.
Following are highlights of the report by the European Environment Agency and branches of the World Health Organisation and the European Commission:
- European average temperatures have risen by 1.0 Celsius (1.8 F) above pre-industrial levels, faster than an average global rise of almost 0.8 degrees.
- Shifts in precipitation are worsening differences between a wet northern Europe and a dry south, with some Mediterranean regions receiving 20 percent less rain than a century ago and could get steadily more arid.
- Global sea level rise could place 4 million Europeans at risk of flooding by 2100 along with 2 trillion euros (US$2,926 billion) of assets, from London to Athens.
- The reduction in Arctic sea ice has accelerated: in September 2007 the minimum surface was only half the normal minimum measured in the 1950s.
- Glacier retreat in Europe's mountains, and changes in temperature and precipitation, will affect river flows and farming. Two-thirds of Alpine glaciers had vanished since 1850.
- A northward movement of some fish species, by 1,000 km in the past 40 years, can have adverse effects on fisheries.
-- Plants, birds, insects and mammals are moving further north and uphill. By the end of this century, plant species may have shifted several hundred kilometres to the north and up to 60 percent of mountain plant species may face extinction.
- The agricultural growing season is now longer, especially in the north. Although this may favour the introduction of new crops, crop yields will become more variable because extreme weather events are projected to increase.
- Increasing water demand for agriculture in the Mediterranean region will lead to unsustainable competition for water with tourism and households.
- The growing season of forests is also changing and the danger of forest fires will increase in southern Europe.
- Human health is also significantly affected by climate change. The 70,000 excess deaths reported from 12 European countries in a 2003 heatwave could be an example of health impacts to come. Health systems will need to be strengthened.
(Source: European Environment Agency (EEA) --Editing by Angus MacSwan)
Europe Warms Fast: Med Drier, North Ever Wetter
Alister Doyle, PlanetArk 29 Sep 08;
OSLO - Europe is warming faster than the world average and governments need to invest to adapt to a changing climate set to turn the Mediterranean region arid and the north ever wetter, a study showed on Monday.
Europe's mountains, coasts, the Mediterranean and the Arctic were most at risk from global warming, according to the report by the European Environment Agency and branches of the World Health Organisation and the European Commission.
"Global average temperature has increased almost 0.8 C (1.4 F) above pre-industrial levels, with even higher temperature increases in Europe and northern latitudes," it said.
Europe had warmed by 1.0 C.
Northern Europe would get wetter this century while more of Europe's Mediterranean region might turn to desert, based on trends already under way, it said. European heatwaves like in 2003, during which 70,000 people died, could be more frequent.
"Annual precipitation changes are worsening differences between a wet northern part of Europe and a dry south," it said.
That meant a need to review everything from irrigation to the ability of southern rivers to help cool nuclear power plants.
Among other impacts, seas were rising in a threat to coasts, some fish stocks had moved 1,000 km north in the past 40 years -- pushing cod not caught by trawlers away from the North Sea -- and two-thirds of Alpine glaciers had vanished since 1850.
A few in Europe were getting benefits, such as northern farmers with longer growing seasons for crops.
The report urged Europe to do more to adapt to the impacts of climate change, such as protecting people from insect-borne diseases or safeguarding coasts from higher seas. So far, most adaptation has focused on easing more river floods.
"Implementation of adaptation actions has only just started," said Jacqueline McGlade, head of the Denmark-based European Environment Agency.
"We need to intensify such actions and improve information exchange on data, effectiveness and costs," McGlade said.
The report also said that Europe had a moral obligation to help people in developing nations adapt to a changing climate.
The world's governments have agreed to work by the end of 2009 a new treaty to fight climate change. But financial turmoil and economic slowdown may dampen willingness to invest in billion-dollar climate projects.
RISING SEAS
Seas are likely to rise by 18 to 59 cms (7 to 23 inches) by 2100, according to the UN Climate Panel, and could keep rising for centuries if ice sheets of Greenland or Antarctica thaw.
In Europe, 4 million people and 2 trillion euros (US$2.9 trillion) in assets would be at risk from flooding from higher seas by 2100, from the Baltic states to Greece, the report said.
Recent estimates indicated that losses from rising seas could total up to 18 billion euros a year by 2080 but spending of 1 billion a year -- on everything from dikes to raising beach levels -- could cut losses to about 1 bilion a year, it said.
Hurricane Katrina in the United States in 2005 caused about US$80 billion in losses.
The European Union aims to cut greenhouse gas emissions, mainly from burning fossil fuels, by 20 percent below 1990 levels by 2020, or by 30 percent if other big economies join in.
The report suggested setting up a new European Clearing House to help distribute information on impacts, vulnerability and impacts of climate change.(Editing by Angus MacSwan)
Climate change: Floods, drought, mosquito disease aim at Europe
Yahoo News 29 Sep 08;
Climate change will amplify the risk of flooding in northwestern Europe, water scarcity and forest fires on the northern Mediterranean rim and bring milder winters to Scandinavia, the European Environment Agency (EAA) said on Monday.
Higher temperatures will also extend the habitat range of virus-carrying mosquitoes, including the Asian tiger mosquito which carries the chikungunya virus and other pathogens, it said.
"Many regions and sectors across Europe are vulnerable to climate change impacts," Jacqueline McGlade, executive director of the Copenhagen-based EAA, said in a press release.
"Implementation of adaptation actions has only just started. We need to intensify such actions and improve information exchange on data, effectiveness and costs."
The report is an update of a 2004 assessment on Europe's exposure to climate change. It is an overview of data drawn mainly from the EAA's own resources and the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
The EAA said the warming trend in Europe was above the global average.
Since pre-industrial times, Europe's landmass has warmed by 1.0 degrees Celsius (1.8 degrees Fahrenheit) and the seas around it by 1.2 C (2.16 F), compared with a global mean of 0.8 C (1.44 F) and 1.0 C (1.8 F) respectively, it said.
"Projections suggest further temperature increases in Europe between 1.0 and 5.5 C (1/8-9.9 F) by the end of the century," said the report.
"More frequent and more intense hot extremes and a decreasing number of cold extremes have occurred the past 50 years, and this trend is projected to continue."
In 2007, the IPCC gave an estimate of a global rise in temperature this century of 1.8-4.0 C (3.24-7.2 F).
The report said Europe's climate was already being affected by warming in several ways.
Snow cover has decreased by 1.3 percent per decade in the last 40 years, and Greenland is being affected by ice-sheet loss.
There have been several major droughts in the past few decades, including the catastrophic heatwave in 2003 that claimed tens of thousands of lives in continental Europe, and water shortages that gripped Spain and Portugal in 2005.
Among wildlife, some species of birds, insects and mammals are moving northwards and uphill to escape higher temperatures, and sub-tropical species of fish are showing up in European waters with increasing frequency.
On the plus side, more carbon dioxide (CO2) in the air is helping forests, which in most cases are growing faster now than a century ago, it said.
Looking to the future, the report also made these points:
-- STORMS: The strongest storms are likely to get stronger, but they will be slightly less frequent.
-- FLOODS: Flooding is projected to occur more frequently in many regions, particularly in winter and spring, with northwestern and central and eastern Europe most vulnerable.
-- HEALTH: Heatwaves, mosquito-borne viruses and water-borne diseases are among the panoply of challenges to health from warming. "The risk is very dependent on human behaviour and the quality of health care services and their ability to detect early and act," the report warns.
-- COSTS: Many costs are likely to be substantial, although an accurate figure cannot be placed upon them.
These include the bills from biodiversity loss, from the loss of hydropower and ski tourism as a result of changed rainfall and snowfall patterns, damage to agriculture from heatwaves and coastal erosion caused by rising sea levels.
