On Wednesday 25 September in New York, the European Commissioner for Climate Change, Wopke Hoekstra, called for all adaptation solutions to be taken into account in order to protect coasts and deal with flooding.
“We need to work from forecasting and early warning systems, through flood protection infrastructure, to the ability to withdraw from high-risk areas where possible”, he told the UN General Assembly High-Level Meeting on Sea Level Rise.
More generally, Mr Hoekstra referred to the extreme weather phenomena such as heat waves, storms and heavy rainfall that central Europe has experienced in recent days.
He therefore called to focus joint efforts on mitigation and adaptation to deal with the effects of climate change and, in particular, rising sea levels, which are “exacerbating flooding in Europe”.
“Already, more than 100,000 European citizens are exposed to coastal flooding every year”, he warned.
Mr Hoekstra also pointed out that the parties to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea have an obligation to “take all necessary measures to prevent, reduce and control marine pollution caused by anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases”.
He also highlighted climate resilience, stressing the need to accept that climate risks are increasing and to take steps to adapt to them and become more resilient. (Original version in French by Pauline Denys)