EU agency: climate risks require urgent action

In its report, the European Union’s Copenhagen-based agency drew attention to the fact that the extreme weather conditions experienced in recent years, especially extreme heat, drought, forest fires and floods, will worsen in Europe and across the continent even with optimistic warming scenarios they will affect living conditions.

According to the assessment, European policies and adaptation measures are not keeping up with the rapidly growing risks

In many cases, gradual action will not be sufficient, and as many measures to improve climate resilience take a long time, urgent action may be necessary even for risks that are not yet critical. Among other things, it was highlighted that the risk of heat and drought to crop production is already at a critical level in Southern Europe, but Central European countries are also at risk. Prolonged droughts pose a significant threat to crop production, food security and drinking water supply, they underlined. According to the rapporteurs, a solution could be even a partial transition from animal-derived proteins to sustainably grown plant-based proteins, which – as written – would reduce agriculture’s water consumption and dependence on imported feed. In addition, heat is the most serious and urgent source of climate risks from the point of view of human health, they pointed out. For example, those who work outdoors, the elderly and those living in poorly insulated or non-cooling apartments are at risk – he pointed out, and then added: heat and droughts also pose a significant risk to energy production, transport and demand. The EU can play a key role in reducing climate risks and in better understanding risk-taking, as well as in how they can be managed through legislation, appropriate management structures, monitoring, financing and technical support, the EU agency added in its perception.

MTI