Europe will suffer despite climate measures: EU

Yahoo News 1 Apr 09;

BRUSSELS (AFP) – Europe must prepare both for more floods and drought caused by climate change, regardless of the measures taken to combat it, EU Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas warned Wednesday.

"Even if we have zero emissions it is simply impossible to reverse climate change overnight," Dimas warned, as he unveiled a new report on what Europe should do to deal with its effects.

"Urgent action is therefore necessary to make our people... resilient to the inevitable impact of climate change," he added.

Europe would suffer "more regular flooding... more frequent droughts, more stress on infrastructure and ecosystems," he warned.

Dimas cited water shortages already suffered in 14 EU nations since 1998; and 100 major cases of flooding which left some 700 people dead and half a million displaced and a total of 25 billion euros of water damage.

EU nations have agreed to cut their greenhouse gas emissions by 20 percent by 2020 from 1990 levels, rising to 30 percent if the rest of the developed world agrees to do so.

But those efforts could be insufficient in achieving the overall aim of keeping global warming to two degrees centigrade or less, Dimas admitted: recent recent studies suggest the situation was moving quicker than previously thought.

Scientists meeting in Copenhagen last week stressed that even with a 30 percent decrease in greenhouse gases the impact of climate would accelerate faster than previously predicted.

The key Copenhagen meeting will take place in December when nations around the world gather to seek agreement on how to tackle the problem.

So far, no other country had committed to the kind of measures the European Union had adopted, said Dimas.

But he welcomed new US plans to cut greenhouse gas emissions, even if they too feel far short of Europe's targets.

"This is really very encouraging," Dimas said.

"I am even more optimistic in getting an agreement in Copenhagen" in December, he added.

On Tuesday, the US House of Representatives started considering a draft bill for clean energy development which aims to cut carbon emissions by 20 percent from their 2005 levels by 2020 and boost reliance on renewable energy sources.

Such US targets were unheard of before President Barack Obama took over from George W. Bush in January.

But they still represent only a five- to six-percent reduction using the EU's baseline, said Dimas.

The EU blueprint unveiled Wednesday outlined measures including a clearing house mechanism for exchanging information on climate change risks, impacts and best practice.

But Dimas stressed that there was no one-size-fits-all measure.

The impact of climate change would also vary by region, the commission said, with coastal and mountain areas and flood plains particularly vulnerable.

Environmentalists say the effects are already being seen, with deadly tornadoes in France, water shortages in Spain, devastating forest fires in Greece and Portugal and flooding in Britain and Germany.

However Green groups including the WWF, argued that while the EU was recognising the scale of the problem it was not doing enough to tackle it.

"We are particularly concerned for a potential water crisis across Europe, whereby southern countries will suffer from reduced supplies and other regions will face increased extreme weather events and floods," said Tony Long, director of WWF?s European Policy Office.

"Why isn?t action taken now, how much longer do we have to wait?," he asked.