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Climate change — time to act: Climate change is a real and current threat. To avoid major irreversible impacts on society and ecosystems, we must act now.
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Climate change, adaptation is vital: Climate change is one of the biggest environmental, social and economic threats our planet currently faces. Profound changes are about to affect the mechanisms supporting life on earth, and their impact in the next few decades will be considerable.
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Global and European temperature (CSI 012/CLIM 001) - Assessment published Apr 2008: WORLD The increase in global and European mean temperature, observed over the last decades, is unusual in terms of both magnitude and rate of change. The global (land and ocean) average temperature increase up to 2006 was 0.76 °C compared to pre-industrial. Eleven of the last 12 years (1995 -2006) rank among the 12 warmest years in the instrumental record (since 1850), and 2005 and 1998 were the warmest two years than any year on record. The rate of global average temperature change has increased from 0.08°C per decade over last 100 years, to 0.13 °C per decade in last 50 years and 0.23°C in last decade. The best estimates for projected global warming from 1990 to the end of this century range from 1.8 to 4.0°C (likely range 1.1 to 6.4°C) for different scenarios which do not assume that more action is taken to limit emissions. EUROPE Europe has warmed more than the global average. The increase for the European land area and European land & ocean area has been 1.16°C and 0.95°C, respectively, comparing the trend towards 2006 with pre-industrial times. The warmest year in European land has been 2000, closely followed by 2006 and 2002. The temperature changes has been largest in South-Western, central and north-eastern Europe and in mountainous regions. In the past 100 years, cold days, cold nights and frost have became less frequent, while extreme high temperature as hot days, hot nights, and heat waves have became more frequent. The annual average temperature for Europe is projected to rise this century 1-5.5°C (best estimate) with the greatest warming over eastern Europe and Scandinavia in winter, and over south-western and Mediterranean Europe in summer. For Europe as whole it is very likely that hot extremes, heat waves, and heavy precipitation events will continue to become more frequent and cold events less frequent.
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Occurrence of heat wave events with a duration of 7 days (left: 1961-1990 average; right: 2071-2100 average): Located in Data and maps › Maps and graphs
Duration of heatwave in Portugal, July and August 2003: Located in Data and maps › Maps and graphs
Burnt areas in Portugal, summer 2003: Located in Data and maps › Maps and graphs
Briefing 1/2007 - Climate change and water adaptation issues: Located in Publications
Effects of climate change: In the past 100 years, the number of cold and frost days has decreased in most parts of Europe, whereas the number of days with temperatures above 25°C and the number of heatwaves have increased. The frequency of very wet days has significantly decreased in recent decades in many places in southern Europe, but increased in mid and northern Europe. Cold winters are projected to disappear almost entirely by 2080 and hot summers are projected to become much more frequent. This will have a continuing effect on mountain regions. For every 1°C increase in temperature, the snowline rises by 150 metres. And by 2050, three-quarters of today's glaciers in parts of the Alps are expected to have disappeared. Source: State of the Environment Report No 1/2005 "The European environment - State and outlook 2005" (published 29 Nov 2005)
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Global and European temperature (CSI 012/CLIM 001) - Assessment published Oct 2005: The increase in global mean temperature observed over recent decades is unusual in terms of both magnitude and rate of change. The temperature increase up to 2004 was about 0.7 +/- 0.2 degrees C compared with pre-industrial levels. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), global mean temperature is likely to increase by 1.4-5.8 degrees C between 1990 and 2100, assuming no climate change policies. The EU target might be exceeded between 2040 and 2070. The current global rate of change is about 0.18 +/- 0.05 degrees C per decade, a value probably exceeding any 100-year average rate of warming during the past 1 000 years.
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Change in frequency of summer days in Europe, in the period 1976-1999 (days with temperatures above 25 oC): Positive values indicate increase and negative values indicate decrease of annaul summer days per decade
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