Europe is reportedly becoming the fastest warming continent in the world, according to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the European Copernicus network. This continent has been warming twice as much since the 1980s, the two organizations show from their yearly Climate Report on 19 June.
In 2022, Europe’s temperature was 2.3°C warmer than it was at the end of the 19th century. This warming has been soaring since the 1990s, and breaking the temperature records for a few times. Some areas have more extreme changes, with temperature around 2°C above the average over most of Western Europe and even more than 3.5°C in areas close to the North Pole.
Moreover, summer 2022 was the hottest on record in various European countries. According to the report, extreme weather-related events happened to more than 16,000 lives and directly impacted 156,000 people. Some of the countries that broke temperature records were Germany, Italy, England, France, Belgium, Spain, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Ireland and Portugal.
Carlo Buontempo, Director of Copernicus Climate Change Service, said record-breaking heat stress in Europe in 2022 was one of the main reasons for weather-related excess deaths in Europe. He also added that extreme heat stress was becoming more frequent and intense across the region.
Warming of sea level around Europe also soared to more than three times the global average in the South Arctic, East Mediterranean, Baltic and Black Seas. This causes marine ecosystems to become fragile due to mass extinctions, arrival of invasive species, and even migration of species.
Read also Global Temperatures to Set the Hottest Records for the Next 5 Years, WMO said
To combat the heat, Professor Petteri Taalas, Secretary General of the WMO said, increasing the use of renewable and low-carbon energy sources is important to reduce dependence on fossil fuels.
Taalas pointed the importance of services such as the WMO, to ensure the resilience of energy systems to climate shocks and improve energy efficiency, as extreme weather threatens to affect energy supply and demand in Europe,
From the report, it can be seen that parts of the ocean especially off the coast of Ireland and the Aegean Sea and Portugal have the greatest potential for wind power to work best, while the southern part of Europe has the greatest potential for solar power.
Source: Euro News
