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Impacts of Europe's changing climate35

TitleImpacts of Europe's changing climate35
Publication TypeReport
Year of Publication2004
AuthorsAgencyf EE, ETC/ACC
CityCopenhagen
Keywordsadaptation, adaptation strategy, agriculture, biodiversité, biodiversity, changement climatique, climate, climate change, ecosystem, écosystème, environment, Europe, évaluation basée sur les indicateurs, health, impact, indicator-based assessment, policy, stratégie d'adaptation, temperature, trend
Abstract

This report presents the results of an indicator-based assessment of recent and projected climate changes and their impacts in Europe. The European Topic Centre on Air and Climate Change (ETC/ACC) prepared the report for the European Environment Agency (EEA). The objectives of the report are to:- present the extent to which climate change and its impacts are already occurring and projected to occur in future;- enable the assessment of the vulnerability of natural and societal sectors to climate change, and to enable the development of adaptation strategies;- show the distance to achieving (long-term) climate change targets, in particular the EU indicative target for global temperature;- raise awareness of how mitigation policies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions can delay or avoid potential adverse impacts of climate change in Europe.This report focuses mainly on European-wide trends, but adds information on global trends where relevant. Detailed information on regional impacts of climate change is provided in national climate change indicator reports, such as for the UK and for Ireland.This report presents past trends in Europe's climate, its current state and possible future changes as well as the impacts of climate change on the European environment and society. The report is aimed at the general interested public and decision-makers, especially those who wish to understand which natural systems and societal sectors are most vulnerable to climate change and its impacts.The main part of the report describes trends in and projections for 22 climate change state and impact indicators. The indicators cover eight categories: the atmosphere; the cryosphere (snow, ice and glaciers); the marine environment; terrestrial ecosystems and biodiversity; water; agriculture; the economy; and human health. For almost all indicators, a clear trend exists and impacts are already being observed.

URLhttp://www.eea.europa.eu/