The European continent is the fastest warming continent, recording a rise in temperatures more than twice the global average over the past thirty years, the UN said on Wednesday.
Temperatures in Europe have undergone a considerable rise over the period 1991-2021, with a warming of around +0.5°C per decade, reveals a report compiled by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) of the United Nations and the European Copernicus climate change service.
“This is the fastest warming of the six regions defined by the WMO”, underlined the Secretary General of the WMO, the Finnish Petteri Taalas, in the foreword to this report on the climate in Europe.
WMO spokeswoman Clare Nullis told AFP that the Arctic, which as a whole is warming faster than Europe, is indeed not considered a region in its own right by the organization.
As a result of rapid warming in Europe, alpine glaciers have lost 30 meters in thickness between 1997 and 2021.
Another consequence is that Greenland’s ice cap is gradually melting, helping to accelerate sea level rise. In the summer of 2021, Greenland for the first time recorded rain at its highest Summit station.
Europe “provides a vivid image of a warming planet and reminds us that even well-prepared societies are not immune to the consequences of extreme weather events,” Taalas noted.
“In 2021, a series of extreme weather and climate events occurred in various parts of Europe. The exceptionally severe floods that caused unprecedented death and damage in parts of western and central Europe in July, and the destructive fires that devastated south-eastern Europe this summer, will remain in the memory of the affected nations and in the international climatological archives,” he added.
Not all bad news
These high-impact weather and climate events have caused hundreds of deaths in Europe, directly affected more than half a million people and caused economic damage exceeding $50 billion, according to the WMO. About 84% of the cases were floods or storms.
The report was published a few days before the opening of COP27, the UN climate conference which is being held from November 6 to 18 in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt.
The Paris climate agreement reached in 2015 sets the goal of keeping the rise in the average temperature of the planet well below 2°C and if possible 1.5°C compared to the pre-industrial era .
But international commitments leave the Earth on a trajectory of 2.6°C warming by the end of the century, the UN warned in late October.
Whatever the progression of global warming, in all regions of Europe, the rise in temperatures will be greater than the planetary average, as has been observed so far, warns the WMO, a phenomenon suggesting heat, forest fires, floods…
However, not all the news is bad, assures the organisation, which points out that several European countries are managing very well to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.
In the European Union, these emissions have already decreased by 31% between 1990 and 2020, the objective being a net reduction of 55% by 2030.
According to Mr. Taalas, “Europe can play a decisive role for the advent of a carbon neutral society before the middle of the century, to respect the Paris Agreement”.
Europe is also one of the most advanced regions in terms of cross-border cooperation on adaptation to climate change, and around 75% of its population is protected from natural and meteorological disasters by effective early warning systems.
“Finally, its action plans against heat waves have saved many lives,” argues the WMO.