CGTN Europe spoke to Dr. Samantha Burgess, Deputy Director of Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S)
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00:00Well, Samantha Burgess is Deputy Director at Copernicus Climate Change Service, and she joins us now.
00:06Hello, Samantha. You know, grim reading for this report indeed,
00:10but the east and southeast of Europe seem to have driven these high temperatures. Why is that?
00:16Yes, that's right. So Europe is the fastest warming continent,
00:20with temperatures rising at around twice the global average rate,
00:24and the three warmest years on record for Europe have all occurred since 2020.
00:28We know from the climate projections recorded in the IPCC,
00:34so the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Assessment Report,
00:38that Europe will be faced with a number of extreme events,
00:42particularly heat waves in the Mediterranean region,
00:46where spring, summer and autumn will get hotter and drier.
00:50And we saw that last year in the southeast of the continent.
00:53Yeah, it was interesting in Valencia, Spain,
00:56and the records for the most amount of rain to fall in 1, 6 and 12 hours were all broken last year.
01:02That, I suppose, is making the point that climate change is intensifying weather systems.
01:08Yes, that's right.
01:09So we know from the physics of the atmosphere that as our atmosphere warms,
01:15it can hold more water.
01:16So that means when it does rain, more rain is falling more quickly, more intensely.
01:21What about the impact on us?
01:24We're hearing about more heat stress days, more tropical nights.
01:31Yes.
01:31So because our society is largely urbanised,
01:35it means that we live in cities and cities are great at retaining heat
01:41because there's lots of hard substrates or substances like glass and tarmac,
01:47which absorb the sun's energy.
01:50So one of the outcomes of the report is we monitor the climate adaptation measures.
01:58And that's one of the good news stories that 51% of European cities
02:03now have dedicated climate action plans,
02:06which is a significant jump from the last five years.
02:11And this means that societies in those cities with adaptation plans
02:16will be more resilient to climate change hazards.
02:19Yeah, I mean, that is so crucial that we have to learn to adapt.
02:23And that's what your data does.
02:24So are we building more climate-proof structures?
02:28Do we have better early warning signs in place, for example?
02:32We've definitely got better early warning systems,
02:35and the World Meteorological Organisation has a huge campaign for early warnings for all.
02:41And the reality is, with our satellite infrastructure,
02:45our planet has never been better observed.
02:48I think where this falls down is that climate change is often treated
02:54as a future problem rather than a problem that we're facing now,
02:58this year, this month, this week.
03:00And the more prepared local authorities can be
03:05to ensure they've got clear plans in place to support society
03:09when extreme events do come,
03:12that will help mitigate the worst impacts of climate change and extreme events.
03:16Thank you so much.
03:17Samantha Burgess, Copernicus Climate Change Service Rep.
03:20They're telling us about their latest report.