On Monday 5 June, Samantha Burgess, Deputy Director of the European climate observation programme Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S), presented the Copernicus 2022 annual report on the state of the climate – ‘European State of the Climate’ – which was published on 20 April, to the European Parliament Environment Committee (see EUROPE 13166/21). During her discussions with MEPs, Ms Burgess emphasised the urgent need to take ambitious measures to tackle climate change, which is nonetheless affecting the European continent with greater intensity.
Samantha Burgess noted that while this was a global issue, Europe was facing “extreme climatic events” such as “very pronounced heatwaves”, with devastating repercussions for agriculture, water and society in general. Ms Burgess argued that “people are dying” every day from the consequences of climate change, and she called for urgent concerted action at both “local European” and “international” level.
The Deputy Director of C3S also addressed the issue of disinformation on climate change, noting the increased presence of people “denying the reality of the phenomenon” on social networks such as Twitter. Consequently, scientists working on climate would be faced with the need to make greater use of these platforms to “communicate and counter false information”. “Some scientists even fund associations that are responsible for deleting these comments”, said Samantha Burgess.
She also stressed the importance of communication and access to climate data. According to its deputy director, C3S would strive to make the data “as accessible as possible”, working with the media to facilitate interactions with journalists and providing audiovisual interventions to make the reports more understandable for the general public.
Furthermore, Samantha Burgess also discussed the consequences of climate change for biodiversity and ecosystems. On this topic, the expert explained that Europe was facing the accelerated arrival of invasive species due to rising temperatures, which is disrupting terrestrial and marine ecosystems. In addition, the migration of fish from one fisheries zone to another would result in conflicts between coastal countries.
She also mentioned the crucial importance of restoring Europe’s ecosystems to improve carbon capture and preserve biodiversity, emphasising that protecting soils and terrestrial and marine ecosystems was a priority.
To conclude her speech, Samantha Burgess emphasised the need for ambitious political action to fight climate change, noting that the Copernicus service was working closely with national and local authorities to provide accurate and complementary data. (Original version in French by Nithya Paquiry)