Scientists call on EU to prepare for temperature rises above 3°C

The EU’s EU scientific advisory board warns that a lack of climate action can increasingly weaken competitiveness, overburden public budgets and increase security risks.

Europe should prepare to anticipate the risks arising from a foreseeable global temperature increase of between 2.8 and 3.3º C. In addition, it should implement and harmonise climate risk assessments in EU policies and in Member States, using common climate scenarios and methodological standards. Increasing climate impacts require Europe to adapt urgently and coherently, given the increasing severity of climate impacts in Europe, including increased loss of life, economic damage and damage to ecosystems, to urgently strengthen its policy framework for effective and coherent adaptation. This is indicated by the European Scientific Advisory Council on Climate Change – the EU’s scientific advisory body – which urges the EU to strengthen its policy framework for adaptation. The document points out that adaptation and mitigation (gas reduction and model changes) must move forward together. And while rapid and sustained mitigation is indispensable to limit future warming, “strengthening adaptation is crucial to prepare for inevitable temperature increases and safeguard Europe’s strategic priorities.” The new report by the European Scientific Advisory Board on Climate Change (“Strengthening resilience to climate change”) outlines how the EU can strengthen its approach to climate adaptation in the face of growing and increasingly systemic climate risks.

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