According to experts, climate change will continue largely unchecked. The opportunity to stabilize the climate system with relatively little effort has passed, it was said at the start of the 13th Extreme Weather Conference in Hamburg. This means that massive changes on Earth can no longer be avoided. Climate change “will now occur largely unchecked, meaning massive changes to our planet can no longer be avoided,” said a joint statement issued on Wednesday at the start of the popular trade event. The German Weather Service (DWD) and KNMI, among others, are involved in this matter.
“We must accept that the 1.5 limit will be exceeded. The Paris Agreement has effectively failed at this point,” said Joachim Marotsky, director of the Paris Agreement. Max Planck Institute Meteorology. “This also means that only by making enormous efforts will it be possible to keep the temperature rise below the 2 degree Celsius limit.” We are now on track to reach 3 degrees of warming by the end of this century.
Forest fires and heat waves as a turning point
Wildfires, heatwaves, floods – the extreme weather events of 2023 are a turning point, according to experts. “Global air and water temperatures have never been as high as they have been this year,” the letter to Congress said. “Never before have temperatures and wildfires been as extreme as they are in 2023.”
A five to six degree rise in water temperatures in the Mediterranean Sea could have led to record levels of evaporation and subsequent rainfall in Europe and North Africa.
“The weather in Europe is becoming more extreme”
“Our changing climate is making the weather in Europe more extreme,” the European Union Environment Agency warned at the end of spring. According to the agency, heat waves are becoming more frequent, more intense and lasting longer. The summer of 2022 was indeed the “summer of heatwaves.”
“We can all still remember the terrible images of storm disasters in Greece, Bulgaria, Turkey and Libya,” said Tobias Fuchs, a member of the board of directors of the German Meteorological Agency. “International climate research agrees that any increase in global warming will lead to a rapid increase in weather-related natural disasters.” According to Fuchs, people should better prepare for the catastrophic consequences of extreme weather, such as drought, wildfires and floods.
Bron (Nin): Frankfurter Allgemeine
