‘Portugal is the country most affected by the impact of climate change,’ underlined José Carlos Pimenta Machado, vice-president of the Portuguese Environment Agency, at a conference in Macao, referring to European countries.
Portugal is one of the European countries most affected by weather events, in terms of premature deaths and economic losses, according to the European Environment Agency.
According to a report published by the Agency, extreme weather events, which are expected to increase in the coming years as a result of climate change, have caused 142,000 deaths and nearly 510 billion euros in Europe in the last 40 years.
These extreme events include meteorological phenomena such as storms, hydrological phenomena such as floods, or climatological phenomena such as heat waves, cold waves and droughts. According to the European Environment Agency, extreme weather events caused 142,000 deaths in Europe between 1980 and 2020, and the majority of deaths, i.e. more than 85%, were due to heat waves.
In a list of 32 European countries analysed, Portugal ranks fifth in terms of premature deaths, with 9,267 human losses over the last four decades.
In economic terms, over the last forty years, the country has had to face a cost of 13.461 billion euros due to extreme weather events, which places Portugal as the seventh country with the highest economic loss. 478 million of this amount represents losses covered by insurance, placing the country in 16th place on this indicator.
According to the international catastrophe register The Emergency Events Database (EM-DAT), between 1950 and 2022, 462 episodes of floods and landslides were recorded in European Union member countries, of which 70 were in France, 67 in Italy and 53 in Romania. Portugal had 16 floods in the same period, including those in December 2022, equivalent to 3.5% of the European total.
Also in this period, 59 natural disasters or extreme events affecting Portugal were identified, namely floods and landslides, major forest fires, storms, extreme temperatures, earthquakes and extreme drought.
According to the report ‘Forest Fires in Europe, the Middle East and North Africa 2022’, published by the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre, although 96% of forest fires are caused by human action, they are exacerbated by increased hazard conditions caused by climate change.
In November 2023, data to date show that forest fires burned around 500,000 hectares of natural land in the European Union, including the largest forest fire ever recorded in the European Union, in Alexandroupolis, Greece, with more than 96,000 hectares burned.
This year saw uncontrolled forest fires, which were difficult to contain by traditional firefighting due to their high temperatures, intensity and speed. They could only be brought under control when weather conditions improved, allowing firefighters to fight the flames. Other critical forest fires in the EU were in Greece, Portugal, Spain and Italy.
La Agencia Europea de Medio Ambiente (AEMA) revela que, en 2022, Portugal fue el segundo país europeo más afectado por este fenómeno. En total, se registraron 153 incendios que afectaron a una superficie de 949 km2. España también encabeza la lista, habiendo registrado una superficie quemada de 2.754 km2, con 208 incendios de 30 hectáreas o más, y Francia ocupa el tercer lugar, con 74 incendios forestales que destruyeron una superficie de 465 km2.
Iliana Ivanova, former Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth and former head of the JRC, warned of the growth of these phenomena in 2023, highlighting the concern and efforts being made by the European Commission to mitigate their impacts, noting that ‘forest fires are becoming more frequent and causing more damage. It is a clear sign of the catastrophic impacts of climate change. We are strengthening our prevention measures and building capacity to respond to forest fires’. The Joint Research Centre’s data and analysis are crucial to this effort.
Among the measures the European Union is working on to mitigate the impact of forest fires is the EU Strategy for Adaptation to Climate Change, which aims to support prevention and preparedness for the inevitable impacts of climate change by laying the foundations for increased fire prevention and climate resilience of our forests, based on guidelines for forest fire prevention and enhanced monitoring.
In conclusion, the data presented show Portugal’s significant vulnerability to extreme weather events caused by climate change, which are increasing in frequency and intensity, causing not only substantial economic losses, but also a significant impact on the health and safety of the population.
The need for a collaborative approach to address these challenges is evident, involving not only national efforts but also international cooperation, and there is an urgent need to strengthen prevention measures, develop response capacities and promote climate resilience in order to protect lives, mitigate economic damages and preserve the environment for future generations.
VÍDEOS
- IPCC Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5 ºC – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVjp3TO_juI
- AR6 Synthesis Report: Climate Change 2023 – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YIFCSZYU2LM
- Climate Change 2022: Mitigation of Climate Change – Full video – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7yHcXQoR1zA
- Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation & Vulnerability – Full video – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDRxfuEvqGg
- Causes and Consequences of Climate Change- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oyiNyWQeysI
LINKS
- European Environment Agency – https://www.eea.europa.eu/pt/highlights/as-mortes-prematuras-devido-a
- Copernicus – https://climate.copernicus.eu/global-climate-highlights-2023
- European Commission – https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/IP_23_5951
- European Commission – https://climate.ec.europa.eu/climate-change/consequences-climate-change_pt
- Essência do Ambiente – https://essenciadoambiente.pt/a-poluicao-e-o-cancro-da-mama-ligacoes-perigosas/
- Essência do Ambiente – https://essenciadoambiente.pt/revive-impacto-ambiente-saude-populacao/
- Expresso – https://multimedia.expresso.pt/059_cheias_fenomenos_extremos/
- Expresso – https://expresso.pt/sociedade/incendios/2023-08-18-Quase-metade-dos-incendios-florestais-deste-ano-tiveram-origem-em-queimadas-6d7e505c
- United Nations – https://news.un.org/pt/story/2022/02/1781142
- RTP – https://ensina.rtp.pt/explicador/alteracoes-climaticas/
- Painel Intergovernamental para as Alterações Climáticas (IPCC) – https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/syr/
- European Youth Portal – https://youth.europa.eu/get-involved/sustainable-development/what-climate-change_pt
- SIC – https://sicnoticias.pt/mundo/2024-01-09-2023-e-o-ano-mais-quente-de-sempre-com-temperatura-global-proxima-do-limite-de-15C-1e192515
- The Emergency Events Database (EM-DAT) – https://www.emdat.be/
