Europe Warms Twice as Fast as Other Continents

Hundreds of temperature records broken all over Europe

Image by Scott Duncan. Follow him via @ScottDuncanWX on Twitter/X

This weekend’s extreme weather reminds us of the potential impact of climate change. Hundreds of climate records were broken in many European countries, including France and Germany, where temperatures soared above 30 degrees Celsius in some regions. 

Take the city of Biarritz, where the highest minimum temperature ever recorded in France in April was just measured, not at the end of the month when we are closer to summer, but at the beginning. 

But the record is even more extreme than that: it also beats the records for May and June. 

Worse: this record is not just for Biarritz but all mainland France, including Corsica. 

It feels like the planet is trying one more time to remind us to take climate action urgently. These extremes follow years of record-breaking temperatures and severe environmental, economic, and health impacts in Europe.

Global Surface Temperature Anomaly: 1941–2024 (image: Prof. Eliot Jacobson, follow him via @EliotJacobson on Twitter/X)

Forest fires created record-breaking burned areas, glacier melt increased to unprecedented levels, agriculture suffered from drought conditions, and Europe lost thousands of people to heat-associated excess deaths. 

This weekend’s record-breaking temperatures in Europe follow the extreme heat of the previous weekend when eight European countries set new temperature records for March. 

A frightening global trend 

Europe was not alone; it was also much warmer than usual in Asia, Central America, and West Africa this time of year. 

If this global trend continues, you may expect an announcement in early June that the world has experienced a year-long run of breaking the high-temperature record for each month. 

Expect more heat, extreme weather events, damage, and suffering if we don’t rapidly and drastically reduce the burning of fossil fuels. El Niño’s impact will decline, but that’s a natural event that comes and goes; it’s human-made climate change that we can and should get under control. 

EU climate action shows results 

Policymakers have mostly ignored scientists’ and environmentalists’ calls for climate action for decades. But Europe is now taking action, and the results prove to other energy-hungry regions worldwide that it’s worth investing in renewable energy. 

Last year’s emissions under the EU’s Emission Trading System (ETS) show the most considerable reduction in annual emissions since the system was launched nearly 20 years ago. 

In 2023, emissions decreased by 15.5 percent compared to 2022, which sets emissions at 47 percent below the 2005 levels. The EU is well on track to achieve the 2030 target of a 62 percent reduction. 

The cap-and-trade system for decarbonizing the European economy proves to be effective, and the main driver of this remarkable emissions reduction is the increase in wind and solar energy. 

The EU remains challenged to continue reducing emissions, but with the results so far, it is already an example to other highly pollution countries. It shows what can be achieved with political will and a mentality that we can fix climate change. 

And we need all significant polluters worldwide to raise their climate action ambitions. Last year was the hottest year on record, with much of the world experiencing at least 20 more heatwave days than the 1991–2020 average. 

A year of record-breaking heat

In 2023, the hottest month ever was recorded; nearly a quarter of land regions set new extreme heat records. It was the year of record-breaking heat in the Northern Hemisphere’s summer. At the same time, South America experienced several wintertime heatwaves equal to extreme summertime heat. 

Like the experience in large parts of Europe this weekend, extreme heat was frequently prevalent in spring and autumn. We are rapidly nearing the first year with average temperatures 1.5 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial average.

Think the unthinkable: you will likely experience more extreme weather, either directly or through the impacts that these unstable conditions will have on the stability of the environment, our country’s socioeconomic structures, and political systems.

I write this newsletter because if we work together, we can do better on this beautiful but fragile planet.

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Notes:

https://www.nature.com/articles/s43017-024-00536-y

https://phys.org/news/2023-06-europe-fast-continents-climate.html#google_vignette

https://climate.ec.europa.eu/news-your-voice/news/record-reduction-2023-ets-emissions-due-largely-boost-renewable-energy-2024-04-03_en