Brussels: Europe and the Arabs
Last summer, Europe experienced its hottest heat on record, accompanied by so-called extreme weather events such as heat waves, droughts and wildfires.
The Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) annual State of the European Climate (ESOTC) report Thursday revealed that temperatures in Europe are rising faster than other continents, even twice as fast as anywhere else in the world.
According to what was reported by the Belgian news agency, Thursday, and it added that globally, the average temperature last year was 1.2 degrees Celsius warmer than pre-industrial levels from 1850 to 1900. For Europe, 2022 was the second warmest year on record, 2.2°C warmer than pre-industrial levels and 0.9°C warmer than pre-industrial levels. Average temperature between 1991 and 2020. The European summer was much warmer, 1.4°C warmer than the last average.

As a result of extreme heat waves, a record number of days with very strong heat stress were recorded in southern Europe, and the number of days with strong or even very strong heat stress is increasing. Across the continent, fewer days without heat stress were recorded. European seas are also warming up: in 2022, the average sea surface temperature was the warmest on record.

Overall, 2022 was 10 per cent drier than average. The winter of 2021-2022 saw fewer snow days, and spring was accompanied by less precipitation than normal. This caused a record amount of over five cubic kilometres of glacier ice to be lost in the Alps and led to a widespread and prolonged drought, which allowed forest fires to spread. According to the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS), emissions from forest fires in EU member states last summer were the highest since 2007.

The driving force behind these records, scientists at C3S stress, is rising greenhouse gas emissions. Annual average concentrations of carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4) reached the highest levels ever measured by satellite in 2022. Those levels will continue to rise unless we lower greenhouse gas emissions, the scientists stress.