COPENHAGEN
\nEurope could suffer \u201ccatastrophic\u201d consequences from climate change if it fails to take urgent and decisive action to adapt to risks, a new EU analysis warned Monday.
\nAreas in southern Europe are most at risk, the European Environment Agency (EEA) said in its first report on the climate risks the continent faces.
\nThe dangers include fires, water shortages and their effects on agricultural production, while low-lying coastal regions face threats of flooding, erosion and saltwater intrusion.
\n\u201cMany of these risks have already reached critical levels and could become catastrophic without urgent and decisive action,\u201d the agency said.
\nThat doesn\u2019t mean northern Europe is spared the negative impact, as floods in Germany and forest fires in Sweden have demonstrated in recent years.
\n\u201cExtreme heat, drought, wildfires, and flooding, as experienced in recent years, will worsen in Europe even under optimistic global warming scenarios and affect living conditions throughout the continent,\u201d the EEA warned.
\nThe report lists 36 risks related to climate in Europe, 21 of which demand more immediate action and eight were \u201cparticularly urgent.\u201d
\nAt the top of the list were risks to ecosystems, mainly relating to coastal and marine ones.
\nFor instance, the combination of heat waves as well as acidification and oxygen depletion of the seas and other human-caused factors such as pollution and eutrophication \u2014 meaning an excess of nutrients which collapses aquatic ecosystem \u2014 and fishing, threaten marine ecosystems, the report noted.
\n\u201cThis can result in substantial biodiversity loss, including mass mortality events, and declines in ecosystem services,\u201d it said.
\nEuropean governments and populations unanimously recognizing the risks and agreeing to do more, faster should be the priority, according to the EEA.
\n\u201cWe need to do more, to have stronger policies,\u201d Yla-Mononen stressed.
\nDespite the alarm, the agency also acknowledged \u201cconsiderable progress\u201d made \u201cin understanding the climate risks they are facing and preparing for them,\u201d among member states.
\n\u201cThese events are the new normal,\u201d EEA director Leena Yla-Mononen told a press briefing ahead of the report\u2019s release.
\n\u201cIt should be the wake-up call. The final wake-up call,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
COPENHAGEN Europe could suffer \u201ccatastrophic\u201d consequences from climate change if it fails to take urgent and decisive action to adapt to risks, a new EU analysis warned Monday. Areas in southern Europe are most at risk, the European Environment Agency (EEA) said in its first report on the climate risks the continent faces. The dangers …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":61821,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-61798","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61798","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61798"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61798\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":61823,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61798\/revisions\/61823"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61821"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61798"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61798"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61798"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}