Reacción a "European State of the Climate highlights record temperatures and heavy rainfall in 2024"

The European State of the Climate is another reminder of the severity and speed with which climate change is advancing across the Old Continent. It is particularly noteworthy how, apart from climate information, the need for adaptation measures is emphasised. In the current geopolitical context, aiming for a decrease in CO2 concentrations seems a pipe dream and adaptation is now our main weapon to cushion the climate blow.

However, the report incurs and propagates some of the main misunderstandings about climate change. Neither floods nor fires are the direct result of climate change. Climate change only affects weather and increases the likelihood of extreme weather events. However, phenomena such as the catastrophic floods in Valencia or the mega-fires in Portugal depend on the interaction between climate and spatial planning. This separation is not trivial given that climate change is here to stay and yet we can do a lot to reduce the risk of floods and mega-fires. It is wrong to blame climate change alone for these events. Moreover, we are justifying the inaction of our governments in preventing natural disasters because, if it were solely down to the climate, nothing could be done (at least in the short term).

The report has certain ideological overtones in that, when talking about energy sources, it focuses on a few renewable sources. The report should really emphasise all emission-free and safe energies. We are talking, for example, about nuclear energy as a source of electricity or biomass as a source of heat, which also contributes to fire prevention. In a context of climate emergency, we must take advantage of all low-carbon energies with low socio-ecological impacts.

Finally, the narrative of the report follows the usual doomsday rhetoric, under which every year we break a new record. We must understand that this probably does not coincide with the perception of the ordinary citizen: in Spain temperatures in 2024 were not particularly high, at least if we compare them with 2022 or 2023. If we indicate that European temperatures have been record-breaking, without clarifying that this pattern is mainly due to what happened in the centre of Europe and that this is not the case in Spain, we may generate a certain disaffection among citizens about climate information and even a certain disbelief, given that the headline does not correspond to the reality experienced, and known, in our territory.