New Objectives In Environment Law Generated By Climate Change

In Europe, the changes observed on the climate level already produce large-scale effects on the ecosystems, economic sectors, human health and welfare. The total economic losses reported, caused by extreme meteorological and climate phenomena in Europe during the period 1980-2016 rose to over 436 billion EUR, with a significant value peak in Western Europe. According to an optimistic scenario, the degree of annual deterioration of the critical infrastructure of Europe could grow ten times until the end of the 21st century only because of climate change, namely from 3.4 milliard EUR at present up to 34 milliard EUR. The greatest losses would be recorded in the industry, transports and energy sector and, generally, the climate change effects will have an unequal distribution in Europe, both concerning the moment and the place of occurrence. The Mediterranean area will be more affected by effects such as human deaths caused by heat, water restrictions, loss of habitats, increased demand of energy for cooling and forest fires. In a high emission scenario, namely a global temperature growth of 3.2 ºC–5.4 °C during the period 2081- 2100, coast areas may suffer economic losses of about 39 milliard EUR a year until 2050 and up to 960 milliard EUR a year towards the end of the century. Preliminary evidence indicates a substantial contraction of the alpine tundra ecosystems in Europe, even if global warming remains within the limit of 2 °C, foreseen by the Paris Agreement, and this formation, beside the fact that it has an essential role in the water quantity regulation and sweet water provision for human consumption, supports tourism and the rural communities and, at the same time, hosts endemic species to be found uniquely in Europe.