A new report released today by the European Environment Agency (EEA) calls on Europe to strengthen its environmental safeguards. It brings up the importance of doing better on building resilience to climate change. Europe has positioned itself as the world leader in the fight against climate change. The EEA cautions that we must do much more to address increasing dangers from extreme weather and climate impacts.
The Agency’s report, Climate Adaptation, pushes us to focus on some of the alarming trends, most notably the increasing prevalence of extreme heatwaves throughout the continent. As climate change worsens, European countries are at an increased threat to public health and infrastructure. Yet in the face of these challenges, heatwave action plans tailored to protect health have only been developed by 21 of the EEA’s 38 member countries.
Health Risks from Extreme Heat
Many of the buildings already standing in Europe today were not built with long-term heat resilience as a priority. As a result, over one-third of Americans have a hard time keeping their homes at healthy and safe temperatures. Surveys show that even today nearly 1 in 5 Europeans are unable to reach satisfactory heating and cooling levels in their homes.
The cost of these events to localities have only been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. From 1980–2023, there have been more than 240,000 climate-related deaths across the 27 EU member states. The potential $$$ impact is appalling. Between 2020 and 2023, average annual economic losses from such incidents climbed to 2.5 times the levels seen during the prior decade.
“Significant progress has been made in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution, but the overall state of Europe’s environment is not good,” – European Environment Agency (EEA)
In tandem with this response, the EEA’s findings highlight the extremely urgent need for multi-faceted strategies to prevent rising public health threats from extreme heat. As climate-induced heatwaves become an ever-looming threat, the need for well-established, ready-to-implement health action plans will be increasingly critical.
Degraded Natural Resources
The EEA’s report walks that back with an even more stunning finding. A shocking 81% of protected habitats across Europe are now in inadequate or bad condition. Additionally, 60% to 70% of soils on the continent are degraded, threatening agricultural productivity and biodiversity. Water quality No less than 62% of water bodies in Europe are failing to achieve good ecological status!
All of these dire environmental stresses have broad impacts on natural ecosystems, and the human communities that intersect with them. Catherine Ganzleben, an expert at the EEA, stressed the direct relationship between significant natural environments and human existence.
“Human survival depends on high-quality nature, particularly when it comes to adaptation to climate change,” – Catherine Ganzleben
This is a major barrier to Europe’s long-term adaptive capacity to climate change. According to the EEA, urgent action is needed to turn back these trends and bring life back into ecological balance.
Economic Implications of Climate Change
The financial cost of climate disasters has dramatically increased in recent years. Slovenia had a flood disaster in 2023 that was the equivalent of an extraordinary 16% of the nation’s GDP. This financial stress provides an urgent example of the need for a more proactive approach to environmental management and disaster preparedness.
Catherine Ganzleben elaborated on this, making the case that sustainability should be top of mind. She stated, “So, sustainability is not a choice; it’s a question of when we do it. Do we do it in the short term and start now, or do we park it, in which case it’s going to be harder and the costs of inaction will be higher?”
We welcome the EEA’s urgent call to action. They are calling on European countries to do more to adopt and implement policies that advance the goals of the European Green Deal. More importantly, it highlights the urgent need for implementation of epochal sustainability-enabling actions already agreed to.
“We must step up implementation of policies and longer-term sustainability-enabling actions already agreed to under the European Green Deal,” – European Environment Agency (EEA)