Over the last ten years, Europe has faced sharp increase in expenditure on disaster relief and emergency adaptation due to the impacts caused by the increased severity and frequency of natural phenomena related to climate change. Local consequences of habitat destruction combined with finite freshwater availability and food scarcity place significant pressures on the available ecological space. There is broad interest in assessing climate change risks and vulnerabilities since the latter has already led to many impacts on environmental systems and society, including destabilising security. Increased temperatures have resulted in habitat destruction, acidification and massive loss of nutrients in storm run-off water. Freshwater systems are especially vulnerable to climate change due to their isolation and physical fragmentation within the terrestrial landscape and, more importantly, human unsustainable exploitation practices within their catchments. Changes in climate and precipitation patterns influence natural forests, agriculture and food security.
The current IPCC report draws our attention to the future with expected increased temperatures. However, current measures are not enough to remediate the impacts of the past, and drastically new thinking and approaches are needed to secure a sustainable future for the next generations without leaving anyone behind. In this module, examples of the impacts of climate change are presented and ways of potential mitigation and adaptation are discussed.
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Cover photo: © Malgorzata Drwila EAGE/EFG 2019
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