Climate change mitigation - Why care? (Romania)

Climate change means increases of temperatures, modifications of precipitation patterns and flow and an expected increase in the severity of weather-related natural disasters.

As it is mentioned in the recent EU white paper document “Adapting to climate change: Towards a European framework for action”, these modifications will affect food supply, health, industry, transports and ecosystems integrity with significant economic and social impacts in some regions and sectors (agriculture, forestry, water resources, energy, tourism, infrastructure, human and animal and plant heath).

The severity of the impacts of climate change varies by regions.

According to the maps on the vulnerability, included in the IVth IPCC report drawn up in 2007, climate change in Romania by the end of this century will result in changes of the mean annual temperatures of 3-3.5ºC and a 10-20% decrease of the mean annual precipitations.

Since climate change means also the increase of the frequency and intensity of extreme meteorological events, and as a consequence of severe floods and droughts experienced in recent years, climate change policy development will be very important for our country development.