GENEVA, July 20 — Europe’s current heatwave is breaking records, detrimentally impacting people’s health, the economy, agricultural production, and tourism, and the trend is likely to become more frequent for decades.
“The negative climate trend will continue, at least until the 2060s, independent of our success in climate mitigation efforts,” World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) Secretary-General Petteri Taalas told journalists at a UN press conference in Geneva, reported Anadolu Agency (AA).
“And that means these weather conditions are becoming more common,” the chief of the world’s weather group said Tuesday.
During the press conference on the current European heatwave, he said that the world has better means to adapt to heatwaves than in the past as in many countries, people have improved the facilities for dealing with heatwaves and know more about the health risks related to such kinds of events.
Taalas said the awareness of climate change is much higher than it used to be.
He said that ways to alleviate it can be seen in the energy sector with climate-friendly solutions as well as in transport and people’s diets, while prices related to medicaments are lowering.
“But the same people who have been vulnerable to the Covid-19 pandemic are especially vulnerable to heatwaves,” said the WMO head.
“So, we expect to see increased deaths among the elderly and those people who are already sick. We are also expecting to see major impacts on agriculture.”
— Bernama
