00:00Well, to discuss, we can bring in Dr. Chloe Brimicombe. She's a climate scientist at the Royal Meteorological Society. Great to have you with us on the programme today.
00:09So we've already seen baking temperatures here in France. The other week, it was 38 degrees Celsius here in Paris. Are lethal heatwaves like this Europe's new climate reality?
00:19So what we're seeing in Europe this year is we've had a very dry spring leading up to summer.
00:28And so when we have heatwaves, what we know is when we have drought conditions and very dry soil, this exacerbates the heat, causing the temperatures to be a lot hotter.
00:37And so in Spain, we broke the record for the hottest temperature seen in June.
00:44And this is very near to where we're seeing the wildfires now in France, near the Bonn and Marseille.
00:50So wildfires are exacerbated by drought conditions, also these high heat conditions and high winds.
00:57And so this is a concern that we're seeing them so early in the summer season.
01:02And what are some, you know, other aggravating factors that contribute to this kind of extreme heat dome?
01:09So we know that these sort of events are increasing with climate change.
01:13So we know that heatwaves in general are increasing in intensity.
01:17So the temperatures we see are a lot higher, the duration that the heatwaves last for, the frequency they occur for.
01:24But then also the area exposed is growing across Europe.
01:28And this is also the case for sort of drought.
01:30So we're usually more likely to see drought in the summer period in parts of Europe, especially along the Mediterranean coast.
01:39And this is also exacerbating wildfires.
01:42But with wildfires, another key area that is causing them or causes them to spread is also to do with vegetation management.
01:51So that is something that can be improved to slow down the spread of wildfires and put in wildfire breaks between vegetation to stop or slow down the spread to help tackle them.
02:03Now, there's a huge debate here in France, actually, surrounding the use of air conditioning, because not only does the infrastructure make installations very difficult, but of course, there's also the environmental factor that needs to be considered.
02:16All this to say that France is not well equipped or adapted to such levels of heat.
02:20So how can people deal with this in the years to come?
02:23I mean, what are some measures that France could begin putting in place?
02:26So France is one of the countries that put in place a heat health plan very quickly after the devastating 2003 heat wave, which caused the death of thousands of people across the country.
02:42But it needs to look at its urban infrastructure and how to adapt that.
02:47So there are plans in place to do cooling in Paris, but obviously Marseille is a very big city as well.
02:54And there's other big cities in the country and these need to have urban plans drawn up, but also the investment.
03:03I think what countries in Europe tend to do is do a lot towards carbon mitigation.
03:10So reducing carbon emissions through things like the Green Deal, although this hasn't taken place fast enough.
03:17But now because of this, we also need adaptation.
03:21And this is kind of an area that's missing in not just France, but European in general plans.
03:27And so we need investment in urban planning, increasing natural ventilation so that if air conditioning isn't a good option,
03:36because obviously exacerbates emissions and heating in urban areas, this can be put in place.
03:43But it involves policy change in France, but across the continent, as well as putting adaptation pressures on individuals to stay cool and drink more water and all of these sort of things.
03:57So in the longer term, then, what can we expect in the coming decade?
04:00Because one thing that scientists all agree on is, you know, and I'm sure that you agree as well, is that heat waves are only going to become more and more the norm.
04:10Yes. So the projections for the coming decade is that we would see up to two to three above pre-industrial levels of mean temperature warming.
04:22And if you think about the distribution of temperature like a pile of sand and you push it over, then the tail gets bigger.
04:30And that means that we're likely to see more and more heat waves, more intense.
04:34Also, these hazards occurring together called compound hazards, where we have drought, heat waves and then wildfire.
04:43And then in the autumn, we have rainfall and this causes flash flooding in a lot of these regions.
04:48And so that's why it's so important to have these sort of shopping bag solutions of adaptation that address all of these hazards together,
04:58because they're occurring together or consecutively.
05:01And that's only going to increase with climate change.
05:04But it's also very important that we have this reduction in emissions so we don't get to the two to three degrees of above pre-industrial levels of temperature warming,
05:14because if we can lower that, the further we lower that and the quicker we do that, the less worse these extremes will get.
05:22And that's really encouraging because, you know, we have the solutions in front of us.
05:26We just need to have basically the action and we see that at a local level in countries.
05:32We just need to scale that up now.
05:34And I'm wondering also, you know, what effect will climate change have on ocean ecologies and vice versa,
05:40because the oceans and the role they play in regulating temperature is not something that we talk about enough.
05:45That's so true. So at the moment, there's a marine heat wave of the coast of the Mediterranean as well.
05:54And we know with marine heat waves, when we have storms coming over them,
06:00that the latest research is to think that this could intensify storms that come to the region in the autumn.
06:07But we don't know enough about the link between marine heat waves and land heat waves.
06:13Again, we think that this could be raising the humidity and therefore this means that we can sweat less during land heat waves.
06:22But it just affects all of the ecology of the ocean and also sort of fishing industries as well.
06:28And the ocean is a major heat sink. So when we're producing all of these emissions, it absorbs most of them.
06:35And so it's really important to reduce the emissions as well for the ecology of the oceans.
06:41But also it could be that these marine heat waves have a really big link to the extremes we're seeing on land.
06:47And that is something we need to explore further.
06:49But it shows the importance of protecting our oceans as well as the lands that we live in.
06:55Indeed. Now, what impact does U.S. President Donald Trump's destruction of the American climate research system have?
07:04I mean, how does something like that have ramifications for Europe and the rest of the world as well?
07:13It's had quite a lot of ramifications.
07:16So I have colleagues that were climate scientists and meteorologists in the U.S.
07:22And they've been facing a lot of cuts to their funding.
07:26And also lots of people that have just started their careers have also lost their jobs.
07:32And so there's quite a lot of people that are highly skilled looking for jobs in America.
07:36And then what we've seen in terms of the science community is specific positions being set up in France and across Europe to try and take some of those scientists so that they can continue their work.
07:51But it's not just in climate change.
07:53It's also in global health.
07:55It's thought it's going to cost lots of lives, but also lots of money.
08:01But, you know, I think maybe let's see, because that's all we can do with this.
08:09But it goes to show just how political decisions really matter, whether that's in the U.S., but also in terms of European countries.
08:19And actually, it's quite promising because we thought that quite a lot of European countries might go to more authoritarian schemes in terms of voting.
08:29But actually, a lot of that hasn't yet materialised.
08:33And maybe this will, you know, prevent that from happening or, you know, we'll see actually because people want climate action.
08:44That's what we know from people across different countries.
08:46And so maybe if we see that turn into political appetite, that would be really great.
08:52And we'll actually have the reduction in emissions and the adaptation.
08:56We have seen a faster pickup in Europe.
08:58And so let's just hope that continues.
09:01Let's hope indeed.
09:02Dr. Chloe Remicombe, it's been really great to hear from you.
