European State of the Climate report: expert comments

The European State of the Climate report, produced by ECMWF and WMO, highlights impacts of climate change on people and biodiversity across the continent. 

The study finds rapid warming in Europe is reducing snow and ice cover, while dangerously high air temperatures, drought, heatwaves and record ocean temperatures are affecting regions from the Arctic to the Mediterranean.

Professor Hannah Cloke said: “This report maps out how every part of Europe is experiencing effects of a rapidly changing climate, and how much  this is putting the nature that people rely on under strain. 

“To see 95% of Europe experiencing above-average temperatures in a single year shows that we are not dealing with isolated extremes in one or two regions. The baseline has shifted.

“What stands out in this report is the widespread changes across almost anything scientists can measure. Snow cover is down by around a third, glaciers are losing ice across every region, and rivers are running below average flow for much of the year. These are the kinds of changes that are change the reliability of our water supplies and flood risk over time.

“At the same time, the oceans are storing more heat, with record high sea surface temperatures and marine heatwaves affecting most of Europe's seas. That extra heat doesn't just affect the ocean but influences our weather, including shifting thr chances of seeing extreme weather events like storms, leading to  impacts on land.

“The impacts of climate change are now moving really very fast in Europe. The scale and range of these changes show that we cannot rely on old certainties about nature when planning our societies for the future.”

Dr Akshay Deoras said: “Europe is warming faster than any other continent, and this report shows the scale of the consequences is already impossible to ignore. What is deeply concerning is that even in very high latitudes, such as sub-Arctic Fennoscandia, conditions have shifted dramatically since the 1950s, with warmer, wetter and shorter winters driving major changes in snow and ice cover and contributing to some of the most striking heat extremes on record. Climate change is shifting into a faster gear, and our response needs to as well."