Heat Hammers Europe, WWF Blames Global Warming

GLAND, Switzerland, August 11, 2005 (ENS) - The maximum summer temperature in 16 cities across Europe has risen over the past 30 years, with London feeling the greatest heat, according to a new report issued Wednesday by the global conservation group WWF.

In the last five years, average summer temperatures in 13 of the 16 cities studied were at least one degree Celsius (1.8 degrees Fahrenheit) higher than during the first five years of the 1970s.

“Summer temperatures in Europe’s cities are heading for an 'unbearable' reading on the thermometer,” said Imogen Zethoven, director of WWF’s Global PowerSwitch! Campaign.

“Scientists estimate that man-made greenhouse gas emissions are doubling the risk of more record-breaking hikes in temperature,” she said.

London summer - hot, hazy and stuck in traffic (Photo courtesy FreeFoto)

The increase in average summer mean temperature was highest in Madrid – up by 2.2°C, followed by Luxembourg (2ºC), Stockholm (1.5ºC), and Brussels, Rome, and Vienna (1.2ºC).

Evidence of the higher temperatures is found in the large patches of woodland ablaze in southern Europe as one of the worst droughts for decades parches the region. Fires have charred more than 68,000 hectares (168,031 acres) this year, more than half in July.

In Spain's northwest region, crews are trying to extinguish a blaze that has consumed 4,000 hectares since Wednesday.

In the south of Spain, 29 children and nine teachers were forced to evacuate a holiday campground. In addition, the Mediterranean coast of Spain has been invaded by jellyfish. Scientists blame the drought and prolonged heat for bringing the stinging creatures close to the shore.

In Portugal, four fires are out of control. Police suspect arson and have arrested more than 70 people.

And in France, firefighters are attending two new fires, while they have contained one fire near the city of Aix en Provence.

A campsite near the foothills of the southern Alps has been evacuated and some 100 people have fled their homes.

The European Commission confirmed Wednesday that there has been an increase in forest fires in the European Mediterranean region. In 2003, the total area burned by forest fires was 740,000 hectares - almost three times the surface area of the EU member state of Luxembourg. The fires disaster claimed the lives of 40 people and was the highest burned area recorded since 1989.

Image taken from aboard the U.S. Aqua satellite shows fires burning in the parched forests east of the city of Ourense in northern Spain on August 7, 2005. Fires continued in tinder-dry northern Portugal, particularly around the coastal city of Porto. (Photo courtesy MODIS Rapid Response Team, NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center)

By mid-July, 19 people had lost their lives, 70,000 fires were recorded, and an area of 140,000 hectares (346,000 acres) had been burned. The outlook for the rest of the 2005 fire season is "poor," the Commission said.

WWF’s report warns that more frequent and intense heatwaves, droughts and rainstorms are likely as average temperatures increase, the kind of extreme weather events expected as a result of global warming.

The group emphasizes that the power sector has fuelled a major part of this hike in temperatures, being responsible for 37 percent of human generated carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from burning fossil fuels, mainly coal. Forest fires too produce atmospheric emissions of carbon dioxide.

When sunlight strikes the Earth’s surface, some of it is reflected back towards space as infrared radiation, or heat. Greenhouse gases absorb this infrared radiation and trap the heat in the atmosphere.

“To make Europe’s cities liveable in summer we must guarantee the cuts needed in emissions to switch off global warming,” said Zethoven. “EU governments must enforce stricter CO2 limits required under the European Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS)."

From January 2005, the Emissions Trading Scheme has placed CO2 limits on the emissions stacks of large companies. Companies that exceed their limits have to pay the penalty by being forced to buy unused pollution allowances from cleaner companies.

Tough pollution limits combined with a powerful financial incentive to invest in cleaner, more efficient technologies would transform the power sector and automatically reduce its CO2 emissions, WWF believes.

But EU governments agreed to weak limits and weak financial incentives, says Zethoven. "Now the ETS is being reviewed, opening up a big opportunity to get it right next time."

Meanwhile, the European Commission, through its Joint Research Centre and Environment Directorate, is supporting the efforts of member states to control forest fires by forecasting risks via the European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS), a network with representatives from 19 countries.

Fire risk forecast analysis performed in early 2005 showed a critical situation. Fire risk levels this June in the Mediterranean region were already way above the fire risk levels recorded in 2003 and 2004.

Persistent drought had accumulated dry masses of easily ignitable fuels on the ground and fire behavior changed from traditional fire spread to surging forest fires followed by rapid fire spread.

Fire fighters in Guadalajara, Spain, found themselves trapped by the rapid fire spread. Similar fire surging and spreading behavior has been noted in the outskirts of Athens and tourist areas in Sardinia.

The European Commission is now fine-tuning technology to provide information on droughts on a European scale. For example, during the last winter period, soil moisture conditions were far drier than average - such quantitative information will improve forest fire prediction capabilities, the Commission said.

The European Forest Fire Information System is found online at: http://inforest.jrc.it/effis/

Download the WWF report "Europe Feels the Heat" by clicking here.