Europe experienced its most extreme year for unusual weather events in 2018. Record heat and precipitation were recorded across the continent, with extremely cold weather during the winter, and heat and drought through spring and summer.
Now, the start of 2019 has already seen warm record daily winter temperatures in Europe, too. For example, the UK has experienced unusually warm weather during the beginning of the year — with record-breaking temperatures that hadn’t been seen in the last 122 years. This year we had the hottest February in UK’s history, with the highest average daily maximum temperature at 18.3 °C.
Even though it would be naive to say that such weather events are specifically caused by climate change, climate scientists have said that the only direction that climate change is pushing, is towards warmer temperatures.
We at GreenMatch have therefore conducted a comprehensive study that looks into recent trends surrounding climate change in 32 European countries. The study has been illustrated on a map containing data about nationwide trends in surface temperatures, sea temperatures, sea levels, and precipitation.
European Countries Most Affected by Climate Change
1. Lithuania
According to GreenMatch’s findings, Lithuania has been seeing a significantly high rise in sea levels compared to the other European countries that were a part of the study, with an increase of 4.46 mm per year between 1970 and 2015.
The sea temperature in Lithuania has increased by 0.73 °C, from 1960 to 2014, sharing the first place with five other countries.
The surface temperature has increased the most, with an increase of 0.325 °C per decade, again sharing the first place with six other countries.
Finally, the precipitation in Lithuania has increased by 20 mm per decade, between 1960 and 2015.
All indicators considered, Lithuania ended up with a total score of 75.04.
2. Finland
Coming in second: Finland. The surface temperature in Finland increased by 0.314 °C per decade, whereas precipitation saw the exact same increase of 20 mm per decade, as in Lithuania.
Furthermore, the sea temperature in Finland has increased by 0.73 °C, from 1970 to 2015, whereas the sea level has seen a decrease of 4.26 mm per year.
However, according to the National Land Survey of Finland, new land has been appearing from the sea for centuries due to the Fennoscandian land uplift. It might, therefore, be difficult to determine the extent to which the sea level drop in Finland has been caused by climate change.
After combining the different indicators, Finland ended up with a total score of 72.96.
3. Latvia
The data for Latvia showed very similar results to Lithuania, with three of the indicators ending up with the exact same score. The only indicator where Latvia had a lower score than Lithuania is the rise in sea levels.
However, compared to most other European countries, Latvia has still seen a high rise in sea levels, with an increase of 4.02 mm per year between 1970 and 2015.
4 Iceland
According to GreenMatch’s study, Iceland turned out to be the European country that has been affected by climate change the least.
Iceland saw an average change in surface temperatures, with a 0.275 °C increase per decade. Compared to the other European countries in our study, Iceland has seen by far the lowest increase in sea temperatures, with a slight increase of 0.208 °C, from 1960 to 2014 — being significantly lower than the European average of 0.621 °C, as well as the global average of 0.327 °C.
Additionally, sea levels have increased by 1.31 mm per year, from 1970 to 2015, which is 0.71 mm lower than the European average.
Finally, precipitation in Iceland has been increasing significantly compared to other European countries. Their precipitation increased by 35 mm per decade, between 1960 and 2015, whereas the average precipitation in Europe, in fact, decreased by 1.95 mm per decade.
After combining these indicators, Iceland ended up with a total score of 36.07.
5.Greece
The second country least affected by climate change turned out to be Greece. Greece saw by far the lowest change in surface temperature, with an increase of only 0.075 °C per decade.
On the other hand, the Greek seas have become 0.706 °C warmer between 1960 and 2014. This is relatively high compared to many other countries in Europe. Sea levels have seen an increase of 2.01 mm per year, from 1970 to 2015.
Finally, precipitation in Greece has been decreasing by 20 mm per decade between 1960 and 2015.
These indicators combined have given Greece a total score of 37.15.
6.Norway
The third country least affected by climate change is Norway. Out of all the European countries part of the study, Norway saw the highest increase in precipitation, with an increase of 37.14 mm per decade between 1960 and 2015.
Just like Iceland, Norway’s surface temperature increased by 0.275 °C per decade. Furthermore, sea levels saw a slight rise of 0.25 mm per year, from 1970 to 2015, which is 1.78 mm lower than the European average.
Finally, sea temperatures in Norway have been increasing by 0.439 °C per decade, thereby being below the European average.
The potential difficulties in forecasting impacts on the health of the human population should not be an excuse to delay precautionary action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in view of the inadequate progress made in international negotiations on climate change.
Few countries in Europe have undertaken national or subnational assessments on the impacts of climate change on human health.31,32 There is an urgent need to consider how to improve research and monitoring, how to minimise adverse health impacts, and how to achieve Europe-wide coordination, sharing of information, and participation in wider international efforts in this area.Â
reference _Greenmatch,Wikipedia,NCBI,Youtube