News Archive
Climate Risks Atlas for the G20 countries released
28 Oct 2021The 'G20 Climate Risks Atlas - Impacts, policy, economics', contains a series of Country Factsheets featuring maps and infographics which summarizes scientific projections of how climate impacts will play out in the top 20 world’s largest countries over the coming decades.
Water stress is a major and growing concern in Europe
27 Oct 2021The European Environment Agency's report: ‘Water resources across Europe - confronting water stress: an updated assessment’, presents the current state of water stress in Europe with the aim to put focus on managing water availability risks under the impacts of a changing climate. Climate change is expected to make problems worse, as droughts are increasing in frequency, magnitude and impact. Europe needs to strengthen the resilience of its ecosystems and use water more efficiently.
The Ripple Factor: Economic losses from weather extremes can amplify each other across the world
27 Oct 2021Weather extremes can cause economic ripples along the supply chains. If they occur at roughly the same time, the ripples start interacting and can amplify even if they occur at completely different places around the world, a new study shows. The resulting economic losses are larger than the sum of the initial events, the researchers find in computer simulations of a global economic network.
2021 report of the Lancet Countdown: Tracking progress on health and climate change
21 Oct 2021The 2021 report of the Lancet Countdown on health and climate change: code red for a healthy future, is an international collaboration that independently monitors the health consequences of a changing climate across five key domains and over 40 indicators.
Europe's sustainability agenda needs knowledge for action and more concrete targets to achieve its ambitions
14 Oct 2021The European Environment Agency (EEA) report ‘Knowledge for Action: Empowering the transition to a sustainable Europe’ considers Europe’s current environment and climate goals, and the knowledge needed to achieve sustainability in line with the European Green Deal. The management of land and its impact on climate change mitigation, adaptation and biodiversity is a key topic for further knowledge developments to enable a more systemic transformation.
The Copernicus Emergency Management Service (CEMS) forecasts, notifies and monitors devastating floods in Germany, Netherlands, Belgium and Switzerland
11 Oct 2021The European Flood Awareness System (EFAS) of the Copernicus Emergency Management Service supports the national authorities with complementary flood forecast information. In July 2021, the EFAS forecasts started indicating a high probability of flooding for several river basins in Europe affecting countries like Switzerland, Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands.
Current practice in flood risk management in the EU
11 Oct 2021The Commission and Member States carried out a survey to gather information about the framework that was established for flood risk management under the Floods Directive in the EU. The final report of the study launched in 2019, on ‘Current Practice in Flood Risk Management’ is based on a review of 34 case study examples from 15 Member States. The objective of this work is to strengthen flood risk management in the EU.
Tackling the effects of climate change on health in the Mediterranean and surrounding regions
11 Oct 2021This workshop report includes assessments from the region and recommendations for policy-makers and the scientific community. The Mediterranean and Middle East regions are “hotspots” and the effects of climate change are greater here than in other regions. Topics addressed during the workshop included the effects of extreme weather events, water shortage, food security, infectious diseases, air pollution, and health issues of displaced populations, among others.
Economic costs of heatwaves to increase five-fold by 2060
05 Oct 2021In the study “Current and projected regional economic impacts of heatwaves in Europe”, scientists from the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre and other European research institutions calculate that heatwaves, due to their impact on human productivity, are causing significant damage to Europe’s economy. New estimates show that the negative impact is set to increase sharply in the next decades.
Special Report 21/2021: EU funding for biodiversity and climate change in EU forests: positive but limited results
04 Oct 2021The European Court of Auditors (ECA) has published the special report 20/2021 “EU funding for biodiversity and climate change in EU forests: positive but limited results”. Although forest cover in the EU has grown in the past 30 years, the condition of those forests is deteriorating. Sustainable management practices are key to maintaining biodiversity and addressing climate change adaptation and mitigation in forests, and the ECA has made recommendations to the Commission to use its legal options to improve the forest conditions in the EU.