Scientists representing the national science academies of the 28 EU Member States have issued a warning that extreme weather events are occurring with greater frequency and severity.

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2012 saw widespread flooding in Northern Europe, while forest fires raged in the parched South, earlier this year, the coldest march on record brought late snows which caused further flooding and cost the British livestock industry dearly, killing tens of thousands of animals.  

The findings of the first comprehensive survey of extreme weather events were released on Monday (2nd December) during a Norway-EU meeting in Brussels. The report shows a 60 percent rise over last 30 years in the cost of floods, droughts and storms.

The scientists issuing the warning said European leaders need to collaborate across national boundaries to plan for more extreme weather in the future; as they pointed out, "Heat-waves, floods and storms do not respect national frontiers, so there is a need for action at both national and EU levels."

As the impact of extreme weather has become more severe over the past few decades, scientists from EASAC, which exists to share important scientific information with EU policy makers, warned that the changing climate and weather patterns will bring grave economic and social consequences unless EU decision-makers adapt to climate disruption.

EASAC President Sir Brian Heap said on Monday, "Given the tragic events this year in the rest of the world and the recent IPCC report, EASAC feels obliged to draw attention to the growing impact of extreme weather in Europe."

He continued, "This EASAC report follows a highly detailed assessment by a group of Europe's leading experts on climate… of historic and likely future changes in extreme weather over Europe. From the major loss of lives in heat waves to the economic and human costs of floods and storms, the implications are worrying. They present the European Union and its Member States with significant challenges in preparing Europe for a future with greater frequency of extreme weather. In planning to adapt to such a future, it is critical to use the latest scientific knowledge on how different types of extreme events are expected to develop."

Setting out the problems faced by EU policy makers, Heap said, "This [action] depends not only on the type of event but also where in Europe is being considered since the EU's 28 countries and over 500 million population live in very different climate zones, from the Mediterranean sub-tropical to the Arctic."

The EASAC report identified five areas that require immediate action from the EU. These are:

• Heat-waves. We need to prepare for heat-waves and how to reduce the deaths experienced in previous years by further studies of the factors affecting health outcomes.
• Agriculture. The identified issues will have a marked effect on EU agriculture, though farming in different areas of the bloc will be affected in different ways. Extremes of flood and drought present major risks for production and so measures to increase resilience should be produced and applied through national or regional adaptation strategies.
• Flood defence and early warning. In a number of coastal areas, the risk from storm surges will increase significantly as sea levels continue to rise.
• Climate research. As the IPCC demonstrated, although much is known about climate change, there are still areas of uncertainty, which have often been exploited by climate change deniers. EASAC said on Monday that European society needs to reduce these areas of uncertainty to plan for the future.
• Adaptation Plans. Individual Member States will need to develop and share information on National Climate Change Adaption Plans, but joint EU action is also essential because these events do not respect national barriers, EASAC representatives said.

This time last year, the EU Environment Agency delivered its findings on how climate change would affect the bloc. EEA also found that climate change is already having a marked effect on Europe's society and environment (revealing that heatwaves have increased in frequency and length and droughts and flooding have become more common due to changing rainfall patterns). The Agency elaborated on the potential impacts for agriculture.  

Research by EEA suggested that growing methods and crops must adapt to the changing climate, but warned certain states will find this challenging due to issues of water availability and economic inequalities.  The research also suggested animal and plant behaviours will change, with plants flowering earlier in many areas and "The pollen season [will lengthen] and arrive 10 days earlier than 50 years ago."

EEA authors continued, "The growing season for several crops in Europe has [already] lengthened and this is projected to continue, alongside the expansion of warm-season crops into more northerly latitudes. However the yield is projected to fall for some crops due to heat waves and droughts in central and southern Europe."

Commenting on his colleagues' findings, Sir Brian Heap added on Monday, "Global climate model outputs have proved of immense value in providing the basis for understanding climate and its future. However, there is an urgent need to improve regional climate models to reduce uncertainties and improve projections, for example extreme precipitations or hail storms and other local climatic phenomena such as tornadoes remain imperfectly understood."

He continued, "The EU has a critical role in strengthening European climate-research communities and building networks across borders and disciplines to provide the data required for informed future policy-making."