Extreme heat, drought, wildfires, early heat waves, or high sea surface temperatures. These are the milestones set in 2022 and it closed the year as one of the warmest in the historical series, according to data from Copernicus and also from the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). However, the latest study by both organizations has revealed that “the temperature of the Old Continent was approximately 2.3ºC above the pre-industrial average (1850-1990)”.
Figures that have triggered all the alerts and reveal that Europe “has been warming twice the world average since the 1980s, with repercussions on the socioeconomic fabric and ecosystems of the region,” warns the report from the Climate Change Service. of Copernicus and the World Meteorological Organization. “The footprint of climate change is evident in Europe,” they conclude.
According to information from the International Emergency Events Database (EMDAT), the meteorological, hydrological and climate risks registered in Europe in 2022 caused 16,365 fatalities and directly affected 156,000 people.
About 67% of the events were related to floods and storms, which caused most of the total economic damage, which was around 2 billion dollars. Much more serious, in terms of mortality, were the heat waves, which would have caused an excess of more than 16,000 deaths.
In Spain, official estimates place the number of excess deaths at around 4,600 deaths, reveals the report made public this Monday.
“Unfortunately, this cannot be considered an isolated event or a weather oddity. Our current knowledge of the climate system and its evolution indicates that these types of phenomena are part of a pattern that will make extreme cases of thermal stress more frequent and more intense throughout the region,” warns the director of the Exchange Service. Copernicus climate.
An “abnormal” 2022
The effects of rising temperatures occurred in 2022 in extreme and early heat waves. Spain scored a new record in its historical records by living 41 days under the name of heat wave. “It was the hottest summer in history in Europe,” recall the authors of the State of the Climate in Europe in 2022.
This was not the only meteorological anomaly, rainfall on the continent was also below average in much of the region and “it was the fourth consecutive drought in the Iberian Peninsula and the third in the Alps and the Pyrenees”. detail.
“The summer of 2022 was the hottest on record”
Petteri Taalas
Secretary General of the World Meteorological Organization
France recorded its driest January-September season, and the United Kingdom and Uccle (Belgium) experienced the driest January-August period since 1976, with major consequences for agriculture and energy production. Spain’s water reserves decreased to 41.9% of their total capacity on July 26, with an even lower percentage in some basins.
“In 2022, many countries in western and southwestern Europe experienced the warmest year on record. The summer was the hottest on record: high temperatures exacerbated severe and widespread drought conditions, fueled violent wildfires that left the second-largest area burned on record, and caused thousands of excess heat-related deaths.” highlights the Secretary General of the World Meteorological Organization, Petteri Taalas.
These anomalies caused the impacts on the European economy and society to increase exponentially. “The unprecedented heat stress experienced by Europeans in 2022 was one of the main drivers of excess weather-related deaths in Europe,” says Carlo Buontempo, Director of the Copernicus Climate Change Service.
renewable hope
Despite the effects of the weather on the economy, the authors of the State of the Climate in Europe in 2022 see “a ray of hope for the future,” he says. Last year, for the first time in history, renewable energies produced more electricity than fossil fuels.
“In order to reduce dependence on fossil fuels, it is crucial to increase the use of renewable energy and low-carbon energy sources,” explains Petteri Taalas.
In 2022, wind and solar power in Europe generated 22.3% of the EU’s electricity, surpassing fossil gas (20%) and coal (16%) for the first time, due in part to a large increase of solar energy capacity, according to Ember’s European Electricity Review report and collected by the authors of the research.
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