Following a summer of extreme heat, EU President Ursula von der Leyen pledged a new European Heatwave Plan and a framework to identify and protect the bloc’s most vulnerable territories, with a focus on adaptation technologies and preparedness.
Von der Leyen will present a climate resilience framework next month to identify 100 most vulnerable territories and set risk-management levels.
A European Heatwave Plan will propose better early warning, health preparedness, urban cooling and support for vulnerable people.
Commission highlights vast losses this summer: 660,000 hectares burned, about 12 million tonnes of crops lost and over 35,000 additional deaths.
# What happened
In her annual State of the Union speech to the European Parliament, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen focused on this summer's extreme heat and the need to raise preparedness across the EU. She tied immediate responses to a longer-term strategy for climate resilience, announcing two concrete steps: a climate-resilience framework to be published next month and a separate European Heatwave Plan.
# Why the announcements now
Von der Leyen pointed to this summer's impacts as the trigger. According to her speech, 660,000 hectares burned, about 12 million tonnes of crops were lost and there were more than 35,000 additional deaths linked to the heat. She said Europe is warming at twice the global rate and called for both mitigation and adaptation measures to be advanced together.
# What the resilience framework will do
Europe's most vulnerable territories and assess risks for each, including what level of management those risks require. The aim is to move beyond broad targets and produce territory-specific risk assessments that guide where and how resources and measures are deployed.
# What the European Heatwave Plan will include
Von der Leyen signalled several concrete elements for the Heatwave Plan:
These elements are framed as measures to prevent a repeat of the recent summer's outcomes, with a focus on preparedness rather than only emergency response.
# Economic and industrial angle
Europe as a leading supplier in adaptation technologies. Von der Leyen named drought-resistant crops, flood prevention, and energy-efficient cooling as areas where Europe already has strengths and can "capture" growing markets for adaptation solutions.
# Related measures reported elsewhere
Other reporting around the same announcements mentions complementary ideas being discussed publicly, such as a European firefighting fleet and climate insurance mechanisms. Those ideas appear to be part of a broader response to the season's extreme weather, although they were not detailed in the Cooling Post summary of the State of the Union speech.
# Immediate next steps and timeline
# Stakes and practical implications
# Bottom line
A scorching summer that dried up rivers and killed tens of thousands across the European Union from Portugal to Hungary has shown that the bloc needs to develop new tools to meet a worsening climate, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Wednesday.
BRUSSELS (AP) — A scorching summer that dried up rivers and killed tens of thousands across the European Union from Portugal to Hungary has shown that the bloc needs to develop new tools to meet a worsening climate, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Wednesday. She said that this instability led he
The European Union will set up a “climate insurance alliance” to better cover losses as global warming increases the frequency and intensity of droughts, floods and wildfires. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced the initiative as part of …
The EU plans a new heatwave strategy and firefighting aircraft fleet after extreme heat and wildfires devastated parts of Europe. The post EU Plans New Firefighting Fleet After Deadly Summer Heat Wave appeared first on The Good Men Project .
BELGIUM: EPEE has described the EU president’s state of the union address as a “rare moment” for electrification of heating and efficient cooling to be named in the same speech.... Read More... The post Europe needs access to efficient cooling appeared first on Cooling Post .
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