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Climate change appears to be making some of Switzerland’s vaunted glaciers look like Swiss cheese: full of holes.

Matthias Huss of the glacier monitoring group GLAMOS offered a glimpse of the Rhone Glacier, which feeds the eponymous river that flows through Switzerland and France to the Mediterranean.

He shared the observation with The Associated Press this month as he trekked up to the icy expanse for a first “maintenance mission” of the summer to monitor its health.

The state of Switzerland’s glaciers came into stark and dramatic view of the international community last month when a mudslide from an Alpine mountain submerged the southwestern village of Blatten. The Birch Glacier on the mountain, which had been holding back a mass of rock near the peak, gave way, sending an avalanche into the valley village below.

Experts say geological shifts and, to a lesser extent, global warming, played a role.

The aftermath of the Birch Glacier collapse is visible in Blatten, Switzerland. AP Photo/Matthias Schrader

Fortunately, the village had been largely evacuated beforehand, but Swiss authorities said a 64-year-old man had gone missing after the incident. Late Tuesday, regional Valais police said they had found and were examining human remains of a person who died in the mudslide.

The Alps and Switzerland, home to the most glaciers in any European country by far, have seen them retreat for about 170 years, but with ups and downs over time until the 1980s, he said. Since then, the decline has been steady, with 2022 and 2023 the worst of all. Last year was a “bit better,” he said.

“Now, this year also doesn’t look good, so we see we have a clear acceleration trend in the melting of glaciers,” said Huss, who is also a lecturer at the Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, ETHZ, said in beaming sunshine and with slushy ice dripping underfoot.

Less snow and more heat create punishing conditions

The European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service said last month was the second-warmest May on record worldwide, although temperatures in Europe were below the running average for that month compared to the average from 1991 to 2020.

Europe is not alone. In a report on Asia’s climate released Monday, the UN’s World Meteorological Organisation said reduced winter snowfall and extreme summer heat last year “were punishing for glaciers,” with 23 out of 24 glaciers in the central Himalayas and the Tian Shan range suffering “mass loss” in 2024.

A healthy glacier is considered “dynamic,” by generating new ice as snow falls on it at higher elevations while melting at lower altitudes. The losses in mass at lower levels are compensated by gains above.

As a warming climate pushes up the melting to higher altitudes, such flows will slow down or even stop altogether, and the glacier will essentially become “an ice patch that is just lying there,” Huss said.

“This is a situation we are seeing more and more often on our glaciers: That the ice is just not dynamic anymore,” he said. “It’s just resting there and melting down in place.”

Water drips from a melting chunk of ice that originated from the Rhone glacier near Goms, Switzerland. AP Photo/Matthias Schrader

This lack of dynamic regeneration is the most likely process behind the emergence and persistence of holes, seemingly caused by water turbulence at the bottom of the glacier or air flows through the gaps that appear inside the blocks of ice, Huss said.

“First, the holes appear in the middle, and then they grow and grow, and suddenly the roof of these holes is starting to collapse,” he said. “Then these holes get visible from the surface. These holes weren’t known so well a few years ago, but now we are seeing them more often.”

Such an affected glacier, he said, “is a Swiss cheese that is getting more holes everywhere, and these holes are collapsing — and it’s not good for the glacier.”

Effects felt from fisheries to borders

Richard Alley, a geosciences professor and glaciologist at Penn State University, noted that glacier shrinkage has wide impacts on agriculture, fisheries, drinking water levels, and border tensions when it comes to cross-boundary rivers.

“Biggest worries with mountain glaciers may be water issues. Now, the shrinking glaciers are supporting summertime (often the dry season) flows that are anomalously higher than normal, but this will be replaced as glaciers disappear with anomalously low flows,” he said in an email.

For Switzerland, another possible casualty is electricity. The Alpine country gets the vast majority of its power through hydroelectric plants driven by its lakes and rivers, and wide-scale glacier melt could jeopardise that.

Matthias Huss, of the Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich and glacier monitoring group GLAMOS, drills holes into the Rhone Glacier . AP Photo/Matthias Schrader

With a whirr of a spiral drill, Huss sends ice chips flying as he bores a hole into the glacier. Then, with an assistant, he unfurls a jointed metal pole, similar to the basic glacier-monitoring technology that has existed for decades, and clicks it together to drive it deep down. This serves as a measuring stick for glacier depth.

“We have a network of stakes that are drilled into the ice where we determine the melting of the mass loss of the glacier from year to year,” he said. “When the glacier will be melting, which is at the moment a speed of about 5 to 10 centimetres a day, this pole will re-emerge.”

Reaching up over his head, about 2.5 metres, he points out the height of a stake that had been drilled in in September, suggesting that an ice mass had shrunk by that much. In the super-hot year of 2022, nearly 10 meters of vertical ice were lost in a single year, he said.

Some glaciers have gone for good

The planet is already running up against the target cap increase of 1.5 degrees Celsius in global temperatures set in the Paris Climate Accord of 2015.

The concerns about global warming that led to that deal have lately been overshadowed by trade wars, conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East and other geopolitical issues.

“If we manage to reduce or limit global warming to 1.5 degrees, we couldn’t save this glacier,” Huss said, acknowledging many Swiss glaciers are set to disappear in the future. As a person, Huss feels emotion. As a glaciologist, he is awestruck by the speed of change.

“It’s always hard for me to see these glaciers melting, to even see them disappearing completely. Some of my monitoring sites I’ve been going to for 20 years have completely vanished in the last years,” he said. “It was very sad, if you just exchange this beautiful, shiny white with these brittle rocks that are lying around.”

“But on the other hand,” he added, “it’s also a very interesting time as a scientist to be witness to these very fast changes.”

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A new index has identified the countries most vulnerable to climate shocks.

More than two billion people live in ‘red zone’ nations, where the risk of a major hazard or disaster is high and access to finance is dwindling, it reveals.

Two-thirds of the 65 nations in this most at-risk list are in Africa, but it also includes two in Europe: Cyprus and Ukraine.

Built by Columbia Climate School in the US with support from The Rockefeller Foundation, the Climate Finance (CliF) VulnerabilityIndex is intended to provide more comprehensive risk assessments, and ultimately help direct aid to those who need it most.

How does debt increase climate vulnerability?

“Climate shocks are becoming more frequent and intense, yet many of the nations facing the highest threats are also heavily indebted, limiting their access to financial markets,” says Jeff Schlegelmilch, Associate Professor of Professional Practice of Climate and Director of the National Centre for Disaster Preparedness at the Columbia Climate School.

Heatwaves, floods, cyclones, droughts and other extreme events are all on the rise as the climate heats up.

Though predictions are rife with uncertainties, these climate disasters could result in more than 14.5 million deaths and $12.5 trillion (around €10.7 trillion) in global economic losses by 2050, according to the World Economic Forum.

Meanwhile the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) estimates that the annual adaptation financing gap – the amount countries need to adapt to climate change – could be as much as $387 billion (€331 billion) a year.

At the same time, high borrowing costs and limited access to finance keep many nations trapped in a cycle of climate disaster response and recovery, the researchers say, unable to really advance their climate mitigation and adaptation.

“Traditional aid models based on GDP per capita or income level don’t capture the unique and growing risks of climate exposure along with limited access to capital to manage these risks,” adds Schlegelmilch.

“The CliF Vulnerability Index provides a more realistic picture of risk, including the access to financing to address climate vulnerabilities.”

Eric Pelofsky, Vice President for Global Economic Recovery at The Rockefeller Foundation, says the index is an important conversation-starter, on the eve of the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development in Seville next week.

“By using the CliF Vulnerability Index, donors and funders can prioritise support for countries that are potentially living one disaster away from crisis.”

Why are Cyprus and Ukraine ‘red zone’ nations?

The Red Zone is dominated by countries in sub-Saharan Africa, which comprise 43 (66 per cent) of the 65 countries in the danger area where climate vulnerability and financial weakness overlap.

The index makes four forecasts per country: using a 2050 or 2080 timeline, as well as ‘optimistic’ and ‘pessimistic’ climate scenarios.

10 African nations appear in the bottom 10 countries across all four scenarios: Angola, Burundi, The Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Eritrea, Lesotho, Malawi, South Sudan, Sudan, and Zambia.

Saliem Fakir, Executive Director of The African Climate Foundation, says the index complements its own work advocating for “more systemic approaches to adaptation in Africa for countries suffering by high debt distress.”

Ukraine and Cyprus also appear in the red zone; Cyprus in the 2050 optimistic, 2050 pessimistic, and 2080 pessimistic scenarios. Ukraine in 2050 optimistic and 2080 optimistic scenarios.

This is primarily due to non-climate hazards, which are nonetheless included in the data. Cyprus is prone to earthquakes, while conflict in Ukraine makes it vulnerable.

These factors impact disaster management, climate adaptation systems and pressures on finance, a spokesperson for Columbia Climate School and Rockefeller Foundation explains.

European nations are better represented among the list of nations best equipped to deal with climate shocks. Eight of these top 10 countries are OECD members, and half are in Europe: Denmark, Estonia, Norway, Switzerland, Sweden, as well as South Korea, Japan and the US.

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Southern California is experiencing its most devastating winter fires in more than four decades.

Fires don’t usually blaze at this time of year, but specific ingredients have come together to defy the calendar in a fast and deadly manner.

Behind many of them lies human-induced climate change.

Scientists have calculated that global warming has contributed to a 172 per cent increase in areas torched by wildfires in California since the 1970s, with a further spread expected in the coming decades.

What is causing winter wildfires in California?

A cocktail of extreme weather events has fanned California’s fires.

First are the supersized Santa Ana winds whipping flames and embers at 100 mph (161 kmh) – much faster than normal – crossed with the return of extreme drought.

Added to that is weather whiplash that grew tons of plants in downpours and then the record-high temperatures that dried them out to make easy-to-burn fuel.

Then there’s a plunging and unusual jet stream, and lots of power lines flapping in the powerful gusts.

Experts say that this perilous combination is what is turning wildfires into a deadly urban conflagration.

‘The big culprit is a warming climate’

“Tiny, mighty and fast” fires have blazed through America’s west in the last couple of decades as the world warms, said University of Colorado fire scientist Jennifer Balch.

She published a study in the journal Science last October that looked at 60,000 fires since 2001 and found that the fastest-growing ones have more than doubled in frequency since 2001 and caused far more destruction than slower, larger blazes.

“Fires have gotten faster,” Balch said on Wednesday. “The big culprit we’re suspecting is a warming climate that’s making it easier to burn fuels when conditions are just right.”

Summer fires are usually bigger, but they don’t burn nearly as fast. Winter fires “are much more destructive because they happen much more quickly”, said US Geological Survey fire scientist Jon Keeley.

AccuWeather estimated damage from the latest fires could reach $57 billion (€55 billion), with the private firm’s chief meteorologist, Jonathan Porter, saying “it may become the worst wildfire in modern California history based on the number of structures burned and economic loss”.

Winds brought by jet stream have fanned the flames

“It’s really just the perfect alignment of everything in the atmosphere to give you this pattern and strong wind,” said Tim Brown, director of the Western Regional Climate Center.

Wind speed and the speed of spreading flames are clearly linked, experts emphasise.

“The impact increases exponentially as wind speed increases,” said fire scientist Mike Flannigan of Thompson Rivers University in Canada.

If firefighters can get to the flames within 10 minutes or so, its spread can be contained, but “15 minutes, it’s too late and it’s gone. The horse has left the barn”.

There’s no sure link between Santa Ana winds – gusts from the east that come down the mountains, gain speed and hit the coast – to human-caused climate change, said Daniel Swain, climate scientist for the California Institute for Water Resources.

But a condition that led to those winds is a big plunge in the temperature of the jet stream – the river of air that moves weather systems across the globe – which helped bring cold air to the eastern two-thirds of the nation, said University of California Merced climate and fire scientist John Abatzoglou.

Other scientists have preliminarily linked those jet stream plunges to climate change.

Santa Ana winds are happening later and later in the year, moving more from the drier fall to the wetter winter, Keeley said. Normally, that would reduce fire threats, but this isn’t a normal time.

‘Clear link between climate change and dry winters’

After two soaking winters, when atmospheric rivers dumped huge amounts of water on the region causing lots of plants to grow, a fast onset of drought dried them out, providing perfect tinder, according to Swain and Abatzoglou.

Swain said this weather whiplash is happening more often.

The Palisades Fire burns a beachfront property on Wednesday. Etienne Laurent/Copyright 2024 The AP. All rights reserved

There is a clear link between climate change and the more frequent dry falls and winters that provide fuel for fires, Swain said.

These devastating fires couldn’t happen without the dry and hot conditions, nor would they be blazing without the extreme wind speed, according to Abatzoglou and others.

California’s average temperature has risen by around 1C since 1980 causing the number of days with fire-vulnerable dry vegetation to double, fire management expert Lindon Pronto at the European Forest Institute told Irish news site RTÉ News.

‘Now we talk about fire years’

An analysis of 423 California wildfires that have grown to at least 15 square miles (39 square kilometres) since 1984 shows only four of those burned during the winter. About two-thirds of those larger fires sparked in June, July or August.

Federal data shows just six wildfires have burned more than 2 square miles (5 square kilometres) in any January in California since 1984.

Until the Palisades and Eaton fires this year, the largest had been the Viejas Fire, which burned 17.1 square miles (44.3 square kilometres) in 2001 in the mountains east of San Diego.

“Winter wildfires should be an oxymoron,” University of Colorado’s Balch said. “Well, because, you know, temperatures drop and we get precipitation. We’re supposed to get precipitation.”

Fire officials used to talk about fire seasons, said David Acuña, a battalion chief for Cal Fire: “Now we talk about fire years”.

This article has been updated.

Rising sea levels caused by climate change are impacting 1 billion people worldwide.

2024 saw an unexpectedly fast rising of sea levels, which are already unprecedented.

In the World Economic Forum’s Global Risks Report 2025 , ‘Critical change to Earth systems’, which includes sea level rise from collapsing ice sheets, is the third-biggest threat to the world in the coming decade.

Homes, livelihoods and, ultimately, lives are under threat from rising sea levels. Indeed, the United Nations (UN) calls it “a global crisis” – and one that is impacting 1 billion people worldwide.

Here’s what you need to know.

What is sea level rise?

Sea level rise refers to the increase in the average height of the ocean’s surface, measured from the centre of the Earth. This phenomenon is primarily driven by two main factors: the melting of glaciers and ice sheets, and the thermal expansion of seawater as it warms. As global temperatures rise due to climate change, ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica are melting at an accelerated rate, contributing significantly to sea level rise.

Additionally, as seawater warms, it expands, further increasing the sea level. This rise in sea level is a critical indicator of climate change, with far-reaching impacts on coastal communities, ecosystems and economies worldwide.

Why is the spotlight on sea level rise now?

There was an unexpectedly fast rising of the global sea level in 2024, NASA-led analysis has found. Scientists were anticipating a rise of 0.43 centimetres, but instead recorded a rate of 0.59cm.

Pacific island nations like Tuvalu, Kiribati and Fiji have been battling rising sea levels for years now and NASA predicts they will experience a further 15cm of sea level rise in the next three decades, even if greenhouse gas emissions are brought under control.

Representatives from small-island and low-lying countries came together for the UN General Assembly’s (UNGA) High-Level Week in 2024, which for the first time featured a dedicated meeting on Sea Level Rise to address this urgent issue.

“Today is our historical opportunity to turn the global tide and to embark on a common path that secures prosperity, dignity and rights to all affected countries and communities,” said the Prime Minister of Tuvalu.

The key initiatives discussed at the meeting were:

Creating a declaration on sea level rise in 2026

Embracing AI and other innovations to help monitor risks associated with sea level rise

Cooperation between scientists

A treaty between Australia and Tuvalu to protect statehood in the case of eroded coastlines.

How is sea level measured?

Traditionally, sea level is measured with a tide gauge, which you can see in ports and harbours around the world. But now satellites can carry out this task more accurately by bouncing radar signals off the sea surface to measure changes in sea level.

Because local weather conditions and other factors can affect sea level, measurements are taken globally and then averaged out.

The World Economic Forum’s work on Amplifying the Global Value of Earth Observation highlights monitoring changing sea levels as a key application of the technology to support vulnerability analysis.

Sea levels have risen by over 10cm between 1993 and 2024. Image: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center

In 2021, scientists discovered a sea-level “fingerprint” from the Greenland ice sheet, confirming fears about the extent to which ice is melting.

These fingerprints are “detectable patterns of sea level variability around the world resulting from changes in water storage on Earth’s continents and in the mass of ice sheets,” according to NASA.

The Greenland ice sheet is now losing around 9 billion litres of ice an hour, according to the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland.

How much are sea levels rising?

With the ice sheet at “a tipping point of irreversible melting”, scientists currently expect an unavoidable sea level rise of 1-2 metres.

Global sea levels have already risen by over 10cm between 1993 and 2024, according to NASA, which says sea levels have been rising at unprecedented rates over the past 2,500 years.

While measuring in centimetres or even millimetres might seem small, these rises can have big consequences. This is particularly true where storm surges sweep further inland than they would have previously.

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What causes sea level rise?

The two main factors causing sea level rise are melting ice from glaciers and seawater expanding because of rises in global temperatures, according to the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

There are also likely negative feedback loops that could speed up glacier ice melt. For example, the Thwaites Glacier in Antarctica is disintegrating more quickly than anticipated. It’s nicknamed the ‘doomsday glacier’ because sea levels could rise more than three metres without it and its supporting ice shelves.

Heat stored in the ocean is responsible for between a third and half of global sea level rise, NASA says. The past decade has been the ocean’s warmest since at least 1800, and ocean temperatures reached a new high in 2023/2024.

Since 1971, oceans have absorbed over 90% of excess heat in the Earth system caused by rising greenhouse gas emissions.

The relationship between sea level rise and climate change

Climate change is the primary driver of global sea level rise.

As the Earth’s temperature increases, the polar ice caps and glaciers melt, releasing vast amounts of water into the oceans. This melting ice contributes directly to the rising sea levels.

Furthermore, the warming of the ocean causes the water to expand, a process known as thermal expansion, which also contributes to sea level rise.

The relationship between sea level rise and climate change is complex. Understanding it is crucial for predicting future sea level rise scenarios and developing strategies to mitigate its impacts.

As global warming continues, the rate of sea level rise is expected to accelerate, posing significant challenges for coastal regions around the world.

In the Forum’s Global Risks Report 2025, ‘Critical change to Earth systems’ is the third-biggest threat to the world in the coming decade – and sea level rise from collapsing ice sheets is identified as a key contributing factor.

Effects of global sea level rise

The effects of global sea level rise are profound and multifaceted, impacting both human and natural systems. Rising seas threaten infrastructure, including roads, bridges and buildings, leading to increased costs for maintenance and repair.

As coastal flooding becomes more frequent and severe, it will exacerbate erosion and cause saltwater intrusion into freshwater sources, which can compromise drinking water supplies and agricultural productivity. The Forum’s Water Futures: Mobilizing Multi-Stakeholder Action for Resilience white paper addresses the issue of water pollution as a result of extreme water-related events and lays out five pathways to water resilience.

Additionally, sea level rise poses a significant threat to coastal ecosystems such as mangroves, coral reefs and salt marshes, which provide critical habitats for numerous species.

The displacement of people living in low-lying areas due to rising seas can lead to social and economic challenges, including loss of property, livelihoods and increased pressure on social services.

Addressing these impacts requires comprehensive adaptation strategies to protect vulnerable communities and ecosystems.

Economic and social impacts

The economic and social impacts of sea level rise are significant and far-reaching. Rising seas can lead to increased costs for coastal protection measures, such as building sea walls and surge barriers, and repairing damage to infrastructure.

The loss of property and livelihoods due to coastal flooding and erosion can have devastating effects on communities, particularly in vulnerable regions. Additionally, sea level rise can exacerbate social and economic challenges by displacing people, disrupting economic activities and straining social services.

For example, communities that rely on tourism, fishing and agriculture may face significant economic losses as rising seas threaten their way of life.

Understanding these economic and social impacts is critical for developing effective adaptation strategies and mitigating the effects of sea level rise on vulnerable populations.

Past sea level rise and historical context

Throughout Earth’s history, sea levels have fluctuated significantly, with major changes occurring during the last ice age and the subsequent warming period. However, the current rate of sea level rise is unprecedented.

Since 1890, the global average sea level has risen by approximately 21-24cm, a rate much faster than historical averages, according to the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. This rapid increase is largely attributed to human-induced climate change, driven by the burning of fossil fuels and the resulting increase in greenhouse gas emissions.

Understanding past sea level rise and its historical context is essential for predicting future changes and developing effective adaptation strategies.

By studying historical data, scientists can better understand the natural variability of sea levels and the extent to which current trends are influenced by human activities.

Which countries will be most affected by rising sea levels?

Bangladesh, China, India and the Netherlands were singled out by the UN in 2023 as being at high risk from rising sea levels, with nearly 900 million people living in low-lying coastal areas in acute danger.

NASA says the East Coast and Gulf Coast of the US, as well as Asia and islands, are at high risk from the rising ocean. But it’s not just the changing sea level that’s a threat, it says. “Storm surges are amplified by sea-level rise, causing them to hit higher water levels and allowing the surges to reach farther inland”.

While research in the US has found that almost 1,100 critical buildings in coastal communities could be at risk of monthly flooding by 2050. Some communities could become unliveable within two to three decades, the report says.

Sea level rise is one of the ‘Critical changes to Earth systems’ – the third-highest threat to the world in the coming decade. Image: World Economic Forum

How are areas at risk of rising sea levels adapting?

Developed nations need to double climate adaptation finance to at least $40 billion a year, according to the Glasgow Climate Pact. But even if this was achieved, the adaptation finance gap of $187-359 billion per year would only be reduced by 5%, says the United Nations Environment Programme.

In the meantime, countries and cities around the world are putting strategies into action. In New Zealand, climate adaptation policies are being designed to ensure public housing is not built near areas prone to climate hazards.

Sea walls, surge barriers and other coastal defences are being built and strengthened in several countries including Denmark, Germany and the United Kingdom.

Discover What’s the World Economic Forum doing about the ocean? Show more Our ocean covers 70% of the world’s surface and accounts for 80% of the planet’s biodiversity. We can’t have a healthy future without a healthy ocean – but it’s more vulnerable than ever because of climate change and pollution. Tackling the grave threats to our ocean means working with leaders across sectors, from business to government to academia. The World Economic Forum convenes the Friends of Ocean Action, a coalition of global leaders from a wide range of sectors who are working together to protect the seas. From a programme to scale blue carbon benefits through coordinated action with governments to unlock finance, strengthen and empower local communities, to a global partnership to catalyze science-based actions towards healthy and sustainable blue food value chains, the Forum’s Ocean Action Agenda is pushing for new solutions and aiming to support 1000 Ocean Startups by 2030 that are creating a wave of innovation to address global challenges. Loading… The Forum’s Ocean Action Agenda also works closely with our industry partners, such as offshore wind developers and ports, to support them in their transitions towards a nature positive and net zero future. Climate change is an inextricable part of the threat to our ocean, with rising temperatures and acidification disrupting fragile ecosystems. The Forum runs a number of initiatives to support the shift to a low-carbon economy, including hosting the Alliance of CEO Climate Leaders, who have cut emissions in their companies by 9%. Is your organization interested in working with the World Economic Forum? Find out more here.

South Korea and the islands of the Maldives in the Indian Ocean are experimenting with floating homes, while China, India and other nations are finding ways to absorb and store storm water for reuse.

More drastic action is taking place in Fiji, where government officials are making plans to relocate whole villages because of rising sea levels – 42 villages have been recommended for relocation, while six have already been moved to safer ground, The Guardian reports.

The summer of 2024 was the hottest on record for Europe and globally. Over 370.000 hectars of forest have been destroyed by wildfires in the first nine months of 2024. Around two million people across Central Europe were affected by the severe flooding in September alone. Floods in Valencia, in October, killed 230 people and destroyed homes and businesses.

Over the past decades, Europe has been experiencing frequent and severe weather and climate-related natural hazards like droughts, forest fires, heatwaves, storms and heavy rain. Climate change will make these events even more intense and more frequent.

Extreme temperatures do not only impact the health of vulnerable groups but also cause sleep disturbance for everyone. Rivers and lakes are drying up, impacting all life dependent on them. Soils are also getting drier, increasing fire risks and reducing agricultural productivity.

Other parts of Europe are experiencing intense downpours, sometimes flooding buildings and damaging property and infrastructure within a matter of minutes. Coastal zones will be at risk of more frequent storm surges, also resulting in flooded buldings or agricultural lands. Wind speeds are reaching levels never seen Europe before, causing accidents and serious damages to property. Other parts are seeing severe cold spells.

These events are unfortunate reminders of the changing and volatile climate that Europe needs to adapt and prepare for, while taking action to drastically reduce carbon emissions in order to slow down and limit climate change.