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Is Europe prepared for future disasters related to climate change?

2021-07-17T15:59:23.360Z


"These types of events are exactly what is expected according to the climate projections of the last 30 years," said climate expert Dieter Gerten.


By Chantal Da Silva and Matthew Mulligan - NBC News

When Professor Dieter Gerten learned that his hometown was one of many affected by torrential rains and severe flooding this week, he was devastated, but not entirely surprised.

For Gerten, leader of a task force at Germany's Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research,

the deadly floods that hit the streets of Western Europe this week are the latest sign of the crises humanity will face in the years to come.

"These types of events are fully expected and in line with the climate projections of the last 30 years, which have said that

there will be a greater intensity and frequency of heat waves, droughts and heavy rains,"

he told

NBC News

. sister of Noticias Telemundo.

Gerten acknowledged that "it was not easy or possible to link a single event to climate change."

However, he said, it was "possible to link a series of events, as well as the increase in frequency and the increase in intensity."

Search and rescue operations continue for missing persons due to floods in Germany and Belgium

July 16, 202100: 26

 Noting the recent record-breaking deadly heat wave affecting parts of the western United States and Canada earlier this month, he said

the frequency of such weather events could increase if the global community does not do more to combat the climate emergency.

The town of Gerten, Oberkail, is part of the western state of Rhineland-Palatinate that has suffered most of the flooding in Germany.

Heavy rains blew up riverbanks, turning streets into runaway waterways that overturned vehicles and reduced houses to rubble.

Storms in neighboring Belgium have also caused deadly floods, while Luxembourg and the Netherlands were also hit by heavy downpours.

At least

120 people have died and hundreds are still missing

in the floods.

Experts have warned that it is too early to blame the floods directly on the climate crisis, but science is clear that

such disasters could become more common due to their impact.

German politicians, including President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, have nonetheless called for greater efforts to combat global warming.

Aerial view of the floods in the Blessem district of Erftstadt, Germany, distributed on Friday, July 16, 2021 by the Cologne district government.Rhein-Erft-Kreis via AP

"Only by resolutely taking up the fight against climate change will we be able to limit the extreme weather conditions that we are experiencing now," he said on Friday.

Environment Minister Svenja Schulze also tweeted that the climate emergency had "reached Germany."

"The events show how strongly the consequences of climate change can affect us all, and how important it is for us to adjust to extreme weather events in the future," he said.

Other politicians, including Armin Laschet, the conservative candidate who hopes to replace Angela Merkel in Germany's September elections, have also called for action.

Andreas Friedrich, a spokesman for the German meteorological service, called the disaster an "extreme event."

He said the affected areas experienced "very severe rainfall" and

received in just a few days the amount of rain generally expected over two months.

He added that the degree of devastation had as much to do with where the downpour fell as with the rain itself.

"This is a special situation," he said.

"In this region, we have small valleys, small rivers and of course, with the large amount of precipitation in a short time, we have had floods and damage in this region."

On video: Extreme floods kill more than 100 in Germany

July 15, 202101: 29

The affected states were not used to dealing with such severe rainfall, meaning they were probably unprepared for subsequent flooding, he said.

Dirk Jansen of the environmental advocacy group Friends of the Earth Germany agreed.

"The climate researchers' forecasts are clear. Man-made climate change means that such extreme weather conditions will increase in [frequency] and intensity. Such extreme weather situations will no longer be singular rare events in the future, but rather, the rule, "Jansen said.

"Neither in Europe, nor anywhere else, are they adequately prepared for this," he

added.

Both Gerten and Jansen said they believed that European countries and those around the world must do more to prepare for the realities of the effects of the climate emergency, including

investing in weather-resistant infrastructure.

However, they said, the international community should be as focused on

preventing the climate crisis as it is on preparing for it.

These floods come as the European Union seeks to set a new standard for tackling the climate emergency, challenging global community leaders to match the targets set in its plans to reduce carbon emissions.

German army soldiers search for victims in flooded cars on a road in Erftstadt, Germany, on Saturday, July 17, 2021. Due to heavy rains, the small river Erft passed overflowed its banks and caused massive damage.AP / Michael Probst

In its effort to reduce net greenhouse gas emissions by 55% from 1990 levels by 2030, the 27-nation bloc announced on Wednesday

proposals that seek to eliminate the internal combustion engine entirely.

A carbon border tax was also proposed that would force certain producers with looser environmental rules to pay a carbon price dictated by the level set by the European Union's carbon emissions market.

While some applaud the plan, Jansen said he felt the block's target has yet to hit the mark.

"The European climate protection targets are not ambitious enough," he

said.

He said that a 55% reduction in carbon emissions by 2030 was not enough to meet the cap set by the Paris Agreement, a global climate pact that almost every nation in the world signed in 2015.

"We need

at least 65%

for this," he said.

"There is still time to manage it and reduce emissions as proposed in the Paris Climate Agreement," Gerten said.

The best bet the global community has to combat the effects of the climate crisis, he said, is to "reduce greenhouse gas emissions as quickly and effectively as possible because the more we emit into the atmosphere, the more these extreme events will increase in the future. future".

Source: telemundo

All news articles on 2021-07-17

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