A new report from the World Meteorological Organization has confirmed that Europe has been warming twice as fast as the global average since 1980, with major human economic and environmental impacts.
The State of the Climate in Europe Report says that average temperatures in Europe last year were 2.3 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial levels.
The report says that the record-breaking heat stress experienced in Europe last year, with heatwaves resulting indirectly in 16,000 excess deaths throughout the continent, cannot be considered a one-off occurrence or an oddity of the climate.
Rather, it says that these kinds of events are part of a pattern that will make heat stress extremes more frequent and more intense across the region.
Europe has been warming twice as much as the global average for the past 40 years and the report warns of far-reaching impacts on the region's socio-economic fabric and ecosystems.
Storms, flooding, heat waves and other climate-related hazards in Europe in 2022, inflicted $2bn in damage, resulted in 16,365 reported fatalities, and directly affected 156,000 people.
The year was marked by extreme heat, drought and wildfires, with average temperatures approximately 2.3C above the pre-industrial average, which is used as a baseline for the Paris Agreement on climate change.
Sea surface temperatures around Europe also reached new highs, accompanied by marine heatwaves. Glacier melt was unprecedented.
However, the report says renewable energy generated more electricity than polluting fossil fuels for the first time last year - a sign of hope for the future.
Europe saw its highest temperatures on record. Several countries, including Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland and the UK had their warmest year on record.
The 2022 annual average temperature for Europe was between the second and fourth highest on record, with an anomaly of about 0.79C above the 1991–2020 average.
This baseline is used as a standard reference to compare variations in temperature, precipitation etc to the 30-year average and thus provide information to climate-sensitive sectors.
Precipitation was below average across much of the region in 2022.
It was the fourth dry year in a row on the Iberian Peninsula and the third consecutive dry year in the mountain regions of the Alps and Pyrenees.
France had its driest January to September, and the UK and Belgium had their driest January to August since 1976, with far-reaching consequences for agriculture and energy production.
Spain's water reserve decreased to 41.9% of its total capacity by 26 July, with even lower capacity in some basins.
Glaciers in Europe lost a volume of about 880 cubic kilometres of ice from 1997 to 2022.
The Alps were worst affected, with an average reduction in ice thickness of 34 meters.
In 2022, glaciers in the European Alps experienced a new record mass loss in one single year, caused by very low winter snow amounts, a very warm summer and Saharan dust deposition.
The Greenland Ice Sheet lost 5, 362 ± 527 gigatonnes of ice between 1972 and 2021, contributing about 14.9mm to global mean sea-level rise.
It continued to lose mass during 2022, according to scientific assessments.
Average sea surface temperatures across the North Atlantic area were the warmest on record and large portions of the region’s seas were affected by strong or even severe and extreme marine heatwaves.
The rates of surface ocean warming, particularly in the eastern Mediterranean Sea, the Baltic and Black Seas and the southern Arctic were more than three times the global average.
Marine heatwaves lead to the migration of species and mass extinctions, the arrival of invasive species and the disruption of ecosystems and biodiversity.
Around 15,000 died in last year's heatwave - Petteri Taalas
The Secretary-General of the World Meteorological Organization warned that the negative trend of high temperatures will continue for decades while melting glaciers and sea level rises will not stop for thousands of years.
Speaking to RTÉ's News at One, Petteri Taalas said the biggest loss of life due to climate change was during last year's summer heatwave with around 15,000 people dying as a result of the extreme weather.
Mr Taalas said: "European cities are not used to high temperatures and this is why we have more casualties. It's mostly elderly people who are dying as a result of heatwaves."
Mr Taalas said a marine heatwave is driving the temperature averages and affecting weather patterns.
He explained that the water heat storage is giving more energy to tropical storms and is a source of humidity.
Mr Taalas said that efforts to limit global temperature rise to 1.5C by 2050 are very ambitious.
It is very important that countries like China, India, Brazil, Russia and South Africa increase their efforts, he said.
He added that all countries need to adapt but admitted that "not all of the players will gain because of these moves".
