Scientists urge state of emergency in Croatia due to climate change

Scientists for Climate – Croatia sent their appeal for climate action once more to the state leadership, following a dramatic report from the International Climate Change Panel. The group believes that a state of emergency needs to be introduced in the country and warns of desertification risk, sea level rise, droughts, floods and fires.

Referring to the first part of a comprehensive report that the International Climate Change Panel (IPCC) is preparing, more than 550 scientists from Croatia stressed in a message to the government, parliament and President Zoran Milanović that the country has a large carbon footprint per capita and that it has to take its part of responsibility in a global context.

Scientists for Climate – Croatia noted the Mediterranean is one of the world’s hotspots and that climate change already brought more intensive and longer droughts, heat waves, fires, floods and disturbance of marine and land biodiversity. Authorities in Croatia aren’t doing enough, the open letter says, with a repeated appeal for the introduction of a climate state of emergency.

Threat of mass migration from Mediterranean

The disruption of many aspects of the climate system undermines the conventional way of life and negatively affects agriculture as well as many branches of the economy, together with the emergence of invasive species like the tiger mosquito, the announcement reads. “More frequent and longer-lasting droughts are being predicted and they tend to lead to desertification. The sea level is discernibly rising, which is already jeopardizing the fertile Neretva river delta,” the scientists added and underscored that investment banks project there would be significant migration away from Mediterranean countries.

They demand the changes in climate so far to be listed, with short- and long-term estimates. Croatia should establish a “scientific climate general staff” for the transfer of the best knowledge into climate policy, Scientists for Climate said and asked for “a just but rapid and determined transformation” of energy and transportation without favoring any solutions based on fossil fuels anymore.

Đurđević: Balkans are warming up faster

Professor at the Faculty of Physics in Belgrade Vladimir Đurđević stressed in a comment for Balkan Green Energy News that the average temperature measured in southeastern Europe in the past five years is already a bit more than 2.5 degrees Celsius larger than it was in the late nineteenth century and that it shows it is growing faster than the global average, which is near 1.2 degrees.

If the Earth heats up by two degrees, the region will experience growth by three notches, he said.

“It can’t be reversed, so the idea to impose a state of emergency is metaphorical or otherwise we would forever remain in a state of emergency. But greenhouse gas emissions must be urgently lowered alongside the introduction of measures to adapt to climate change. The approach so far was cosmetic, without serious initiatives or projects,” Đurđević asserted.

The way things look, Balkan faces more and more water shortages and situations that would be worse than this summer, with an increase in wildfire risk, he estimated. The risk is calculated by combining data on the temperature, drought longevity, the quantity of inflammable material on the ground and wind speed, Đurđević explained.

Sea level is already 20 centimeters higher

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) of the United States has published maps that show the level of the Adriatic Sea may grow by 20 centimeters by mid-century and 60 centimeters by 2100. In the worst-case scenario for 2150, the sea level advances by more than 150 centimeters.

The agency’s analysis points out that the mean sea level rose by 20 centimeters on a global level from 1901 to 2018.