Mediterranean heatwave impossible without warming: comment

"As Brits head off on holiday, they will find countries like Spain, Italy, France and Greece experiencing their third summer of extreme heat and drought in a row, whilst countries in North Africa are experiencing their sixth [1]. Today, scientists have said – yet again – that such extremes would be impossible without human-induced climate change [2]. This doesn’t just pose threats to health, and to livelihoods in those countries, but also hits us here at home.

"We import half our food from overseas, and a quarter of those imports come from the Mediterranean region. That includes a third (32%) of our oranges, half (49%) our lemons and two fifths (43%) of our cucumber imports, which come from Spain. Spain and France together account for almost all (91%) of our cauliflower and broccoli imports, while Italy supplies a third (33%) of our spinach imports and Morocco grows a third (32%) of our tomato and almost half (43%) our raspberry imports. These supplies from overseas have only become more important after the UK’s wet winter, made 20% heavier by climate change [3], decimated crop yields here [4,5].

"Failing and falling harvests lead to shortages and add to food costs, which have already gone up by £361 for the average household over the last two years because of climate change [6]. Cutting greenhouse gas emissions to net zero to prevent these extremes from getting worse, and providing support to farmers at home and abroad to help them adapt, has never been more important."

Notes to editors:

[1] https://joint-research-centre.ec.europa.eu/jrc-news-and-updates/prolonged-drought-and-record-temperatures-have-critical-impact-mediterranean-2024-02-20_en (-> eciu.us8.list-manage.com)

[2] https://link.edgepilot.com/s/827ab975/gWqqOaGiqUakH2MDHTnGXg?u=https://worldweatherattribution.us8.list-manage.com/track/click?u=854a9a3e09405d4ab19a4a9d5%26id=d8eee931cb%26e=d8bee40528 (-> eciu.us8.list-manage.com)

[3] https://www.worldweatherattribution.org/autumn-and-winter-storms-over-uk-and-ireland-are-becoming-wetter-due-to-climate-change/ (-> eciu.us8.list-manage.com)

[4] https://eciu.net/analysis/reports/2024/estimated-decline-in-headline-self-sufficiency-for-uk-food-production-due-to-the-projected-reduction-in-arable-crop-output-in-2024 (-> eciu.us8.list-manage.com)

[5] https://eciu.net/analysis/reports/2024/estimated-financial-losses-faced-by-uk-farmers-due-to-wet-weather-impacts-on-key-arable-crops (-> eciu.us8.list-manage.com)

[6] https://eciu.net/analysis/reports/2023/climate-fossil-fuels-and-uk-food-prices-2023 (-> eciu.us8.list-manage.com)

[7] https://www.imperial.ac.uk/grantham/publications/background-briefings/limiting-temperature-increase-to-15c-above-pre-industrial-levels-/ (-> eciu.us8.list-manage.com)

[8] https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/climate-energy/climate-track-warm-by-nearly-3c-without-greater-ambition-un-report-2023-11-20/ (-> eciu.us8.list-manage.com)

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George Smeeton, Head of Communications, ECIU, Tel: +44 (0)7894 571 153, email: george.smeeton@eciu.net