Last year's summer was the hottest in Europe since weather records began. Climate change is more drastic here than anywhere else in the world.
Frankfurt – In Europe, temperatures have risen twice as fast as the global average. This is according to a press release by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and a report published in April by the EU's Copernicus Earth observation programme. Carlo Buontempo, director of climate change at Copernicus, spoke of "alarming changes". He referred in particular to the heat waves in the Mediterranean and their new highs.
According to a new study by the international research network World Weather Attribution (WWA), climate change has made record temperatures of around 40 degrees at the end of April in Spain, Portugal, Morocco and Algeria "at least a hundred times more likely".
Temperatures in Europe are rising twice as fast as the global average (symbolic image) © Christoph Hardt/ Imago
Climate change: Temperatures in Europe are rising faster than expected – but not only in Europe
Such extreme heat at the end of April in Spain and other countries in the western Mediterranean "would have been almost impossible without climate change," according to the study report.
Parts of southwestern Europe and North Africa reportedly recorded maximum temperatures of up to 41 degrees a few days ago. As reported by the German Press Agency (dpa), according to the national weather service Aemet, even new April records were registered in Spain. According to the study's authors, analyses of extreme heat in Europe have shown that temperatures in these regions are rising faster than expected.
However, the problem is not limited to Europe. The international organization warns: "As long as greenhouse gas emissions are not stopped altogether, global temperatures will continue to rise, and events like these will become more frequent, longer, hotter and more violent worldwide."
Climate change: Mediterranean region particularly at risk
Commenting on the study, German climate scientist Friederike Otto, herself a member of WWA, made it clear that the Mediterranean region is "one of the most vulnerable regions in Europe to climate change". "The region is already experiencing a very intense and prolonged drought and these high temperatures at a time of the year when it was supposed to rain are making the situation worse," says Otto.
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