EU Study Finds Climate
Change Major Environmental Challenge for Europe
November 30, 2005 — By Associated Press
BRUSSELS, Belgium — Climate change is
Europe's biggest environmental challenge, as the temperature on the
continent is rising a third faster than the global average, according to
a report by the EU's environmental agency.
The three hottest years on record were the past three -- 2002, 2003 and
2004 -- as Europe's average temperature rose by 0.95 degrees Celsius
(1.71 degrees Fahrenheit) during the 20th century, says the study by the
Copenhagen-based European Environment Agency.
"The report provides compelling evidence that fundamental challenges
remain. Climate change is one of the most obvious ones," said European
Commission Vice President Margot Wallstrom in the European Parliament,
where the report was presented Tuesday.
The report, a five-year assessment covering 32 countries -- the 25 EU
member states plus Bulgaria, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Romania,
Turkey and Switzerland -- says 10 per cent of Alpine glaciers
disappeared during the summer of 2003 and three quarters of
Switzerland's glaciers will have melted by 2050 at current rates.
"Europe has not seen climate changes of this scale for 5,000 years,"
said Jacqueline McGlade, the agency's director. "Without effective
action over several decades, global warming will see ice sheets melting
in the north and the spread of deserts from the south. The continent's
populations could effectively become concentrated in the center."
Apart from climate change, other areas of concern include biodiversity,
marine ecosystems, land and water resources, air pollution and health.
"The loss of biodiversity is a fact, species are disappearing, pollution
hotspots remain that damage public health," Wallstrom said
Past EU environmental legislation has worked, the report says, with
cleaner water and air, a ban on some ozone-depleting substances, and
cars with dramatically lower pollution levels.
But it has taken 10 to 20 years to deliver results, and the pace of
environmental destruction is faster than EU policy changes.
Source: Associated Press
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