Europe becomes fastest warming continent in world, claims climate report

A climate report on Monday claimed that Europe needs to brace itself for more deadly heatwaves which are led by climate change, emphasising that it has emerged as the fastest-warming continent of the world, with its temperature rising by 2.3 degreeCelsius last year compared to that in pre-industrial times.

The report, prepared by the World Meteorological Organisation and the European Union's Copernicus Climate Change Service, said that the increasing temperature will lead to record sea-surface temperatures, unprecedented glacier melt and crop-withering drought.

Since the 1980s, Europe has been warming twice the global average and witnessed its warmest summer on record last year as countries like France, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Spain and the United Kingdom faced their warmest year on record.

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Since the mid-1800s, the world has warmed at an average of around 1.2C, leading to a devastating cascade of extreme weather, which includes more severe droughts in a few areas, more intense heatwaves and storms which will be made more ferocious by rising seas.

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Vulnerable people, poorest countries hardest hit

The most vulnerable people and the poorest countries of the world will be the hardest hit, who have not taken enough steps to contribute to the fossil fuel emissions that increase temperatures. However, the impact of climate change has been becoming increasingly severe across the world, as rapid warming can be witnessed in regions in the northern hemisphere and around the poles.

The high temperatures in Europe "exacerbated the severe and widespread drought conditions, fuelled violent wildfires that resulted in the second largest burnt area on record, and led to thousands of heat-associated excess deaths," stated WMO Secretary-General Petteri Taalas.

Across the continent, temperatures rose 1.5C in 30 years from 1991 to 2021, as per the report of The State of the Climate in Europe 2022. The report stated that last year severe heat killed more than 16,000 people, while damages caused by floods and storms accounted for $2 billion.

"Unfortunately, this cannot be considered a one-off occurrence or an oddity of the climate," stated Copernicus Director Carlo Buontempo in the report.

"Our current understanding of the climate system and its evolution informs us that these kinds of events are part of a pattern that will make heat stress extremes more frequent and more intense across the region," he added.

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The report stated that economies and ecosystems have suffered due to increasing temperatures. A new record mass loss was recorded by the glaciers in the Alps in 2022, which is caused by a hot summer, very low winter levels of snow, as well as deposits of wind-blown Saharan dust.

"Solar and wind tend to complement each other throughout the year: solar radiation is higher in late spring and summer while wind intensity is usually higher in winter," the report stated.

While there has been no significant trend in wind or rain patterns in Europe over the last 30 years, the report said there was a marked increase in sunlight, with 2022 seeing the highest amount of solar radiation since recordkeepingbegan in 1983.

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