CO2 emissions fall in Europe, but not enough
Climate change. Land restoration, desertification, drought resilience at the centre of UN initiative Ever-widening consequences of global warming caused by emissions
3' min read
3' min read
World Environment Day 2024, an awareness-raising initiative promoted by the UN on 5 June since 1973, is dedicated to land restoration, halting desertification, and building resilience to drought. This year marked the 30th anniversary of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD); its 16th session of the Conference of the Parties (Cop16) will be held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, from 2 to 13 December 2024. The consequences of global warming have been ongoing for years, but have accelerated in recent years.
The European Copernicus programme certified a 1.27°C increase in temperatures compared to the pre-industrial period in March 2024, and if the trend continues we will reach +1.5°C, the threshold set by the Paris Agreement, in July 2033. His latest publication with the World Meteorological Organisation on the state of the climate in Europe (Esotc 2023) showed how, since the 1980s, the continent has warmed twice as fast as the global average, partly due to the high share of territory in the Arctic, which is the fastest warming region on Earth.
Summer heat waves, fires, floods: extreme weather events have become more frequent. "Estimates indicate that economic losses from weather and climate events in Europe reached EUR 13.4 billion in 2023," the study reads.
As far as Italy is concerned, Swiss Re has calculated that economic losses on GDP from major weather hazards could be 0.11%, and 0.08% for floods. The Philippines, first in the world risk ranking, has a 3% share. From 2020 to mid-May 2024, 81 damage caused by prolonged drought was recorded in Italy: Lombardy (15), Piedmont (14) and Sicily (9) were the worst affected regions followed by Sardinia (6), Emilia-Romagna (6) and Trentino Alto-Adige (6).
This is the monitoring of Legambiente in its Climate City Observatory. Climate change adaptation and mitigation actions, i.e. measures to minimise the impact on the one hand and to act on the causes on the other, i.e. greenhouse gas emissions, are being called for by many. Europe has set up an ambitious programme to achieve carbon neutrality in 2050. This includes the development of renewables, energy efficiency, and the electrification of transport.
