STRASBOURG – The large floods which have hit elements of Europe usually are not an anomaly however the norm for the continent’s future, and European Union member states should obtain “unprecedented cooperation” to be higher ready for such disasters sooner or later, European Fee emergency administration commissioner Janez Lenarčič mentioned on Wednesday.
Following record-breaking rains that in some elements of Europe dropped three to 4 instances the common month-to-month quantity in sooner or later, the floods have affected round two million individuals, with not less than 16 shedding their lives in Austria, the Czech Republic, and Poland. Consultants warn that the hazard has not handed. On the opposite facet of Europe, in Portugal, fires are destroying hundreds of hectares of forest, with not less than seven individuals shedding their lives.
“The extremes that we used to witness as soon as in a lifetime are actually occurring nearly yearly,” mentioned Lenarčič within the European Parliament in Strasbourg throughout a debate that was inserted in a session the place Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban was alleged to current his nation’s EU presidency, which he postponed attributable to floods in his personal nation.
The Slovenian commissioner mentioned that the implications of local weather change have turn into the day by day actuality for Europe’s inhabitants, a continent warming sooner than others, and that such “tragedies usually are not an anomaly however the norm of our shared future.”
Lenarčič mentioned that the EU already has mechanisms to reply to such conditions, such because the Copernicus flood early warning system, which in current days has issued lots of of hundreds of warnings, however that new instruments are being developed.
“We should unite, obtain unprecedented cooperation,” mentioned the commissioner from Slovenia, which itself skilled devastating floods final yr that claimed 4 lives. He burdened that international locations can not combat these disasters alone and that cross-border resilience and joint watercourse administration have to be established.
He warned that the price of inaction is way larger than investing in resilience for future disasters. (September 18, 2024)