2.1: Climate Change Impacts
To contribute directly to EU policy developments on climate change impacts by refining relevant indicators, producing assessments,
combined with socio-economic factors in Europe, using past trends, now‑casting, spatial analysis, forward looking assessments,
and policy effectiveness analysis including economic aspects.
Other Information:
Analysis - Climate change impacts on natural resources and human activities are expected to continue despite strong action
to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Even if the EU target of limiting temperature increase to not more than + 2 °C is achieved,
it still means that there will be many impacts. Climate change is an additional pressure on natural and human systems, which
are already under increasing pressures from globalisation and rising consumption patterns across the world. In 2008, the EEA
in partnership with the Joint Research Centre and World Health Organisation Europe produced its climate impacts report based
on more than 40 indicators covering physical, biological and health impacts. The conclusions were that in every aspect, the
changes associated with climate change were widespread and increasing. Data from the various global observing and in-situ
measurement programmes also show that we are experiencing conditions outside the most pessimistic estimates from the IPCC
2007 report. Action - We will achieve our objective by: • improving and maintaining information, data, indicators and models
on impacts in the EEA Environmental Data Centre on Climate Change and link it to information and data in the Environmental
Data Centres on water, biodiversity and land use; • producing a range of climate change impacts and related assessments in
thematic areas linked to wider strategies on environment and sustainability, for the SOER 2010 and Eureca 2012 assessments,
and regular updating of the indicator-based assessment on climate change impacts in Europe to respond to emerging demands
for support; • working with research teams across Europe to improve the regionalisation of forward studies of climate change
impacts; • developing models and data in partnership with ECMWF to create an down-scaled climate archive for hindcasting and
forecasting Europe's climate at sub-regional spatial scales; and • creating multi-media, user-friendly, multilingual products
on the extent of climate change impacts.
Indicator(s):
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