Copernicus: Europe's Warming Rate Twice The Global Average; At Least 335 Dead,$20 Billion In Damages In 2024 Alone
Storms and flooding across Europe last year affected a total of 413,000 people, led to the loss of at least 335 lives and are estimated to have cost at least €18 billion in damages. Last year was the hottest year on record for Europe, with record-high annual temperatures in almost half of the continent. The latest European State of the Climate report from the EU’s Copernicus service (C3S) shows that 45 per cent of days were much warmer than average, and 12 per cent were the warmest on record.
More than 100 scientific experts came together to demonstrate that the impacts of climate change in Europe - which is warming twice as fast as the global average - were abundantly clear in 2024. Storms were often severe, flooding was widespread, and parts of the continent were gripped by record-breaking heatwaves.
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“Think 1.3°C of warming is safe? This report lays bare the pain Europe’s population is already suffering from extreme weather,” says Dr Friederike Otto, senior lecturer at the Centre for Environmental Policy and co-lead of World Weather Attribution at Imperial College London.
Europe is one of the regions with the largest projected increase in flood risk, and 1.5C of warming could result in 30,000 annual deaths in Europe each year due to extreme heat, according to Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) data. “But we’re on track to experience 3°C by 2100,” adds Otto, who wasn’t involved in the report. “You only need to cast your mind back to the floods in Spain, the fires in Portugal, or the summer heatwaves last year to know how devastating this level of warming would be.”
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https://www.euronews.com/green/2025/04/15/europe-is-already-suffering-the-serious-impacts-of-climate-change-new-report-reveals