Informe El medio ambiente en Europa: Estado y perspectivas 2020

PART 2
SOER 2020/Climate Change
Key messages
• Climate change is happening.
Several climate variables, including
global and European temperatures
and sea level, have repeatedly broken
long‐term records in recent years.
Climate change has substantially
increased the occurrence of climate
and weather extremes, including heat
waves, heavy precipitation, floods and
droughts, in many regions of Europe.
• Climate change is creating risks
to, and in some cases opportunities
for, the environment, the economy
and people. The adverse impacts and
risks are expected to intensify as the
climate continues to change. Europe
is also affected by indirect climate
change impacts occurring outside
Europe through various pathways,
such as trade and migration. To limit
the adverse effects of climate change,
strong mitigation and adaptation
measures are needed.
• EU greenhouse gas emissions have
decreased by about 22 % in the past
27 years due to the combined result of
policies and measures and economic
factors. The carbon and energy intensity
of the EU economy is lower now than it
was in 1990 because of improvements
in energy efficiency and the use of
less carbon-intensive fuels, especially
renewable energy sources. Transport
remains one of the biggest challenges
ahead to decarbonising the economy.
• Climate change adaptation is
increasingly mainstreamed in EU
policies, programmes, strategies and
projects. Most EEA member countries
now have a national adaptation
strategy, and an increasing number
of cities are adopting local adaptation
strategies. The EU adaptation strategy
adopted in 2013 has delivered on
most of its objectives; however, its
evaluation also identified areas where
further action is needed.
• The EU is broadly on track towards
meeting the target of spending at least
20 % of its budget for 2014-2020 on
climate-related measures, but further
efforts are needed. This target seems to
have triggered a shift in climate-related
spending in some policy areas (such as
the European Regional Development
Fund and the Cohesion Fund) but not
in others (such as agriculture, rural
development and fisheries).
• Looking ahead, a significant step-up
in reductions is needed to achieve the
EU’s objective of an 80-95 % reduction
in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.
While the EU is on track to achieve
its 2020 targets on greenhouse gas
emissions and renewable energy,
progress on the energy efficiency
target remains insufficient. Rising
energy consumption trends and recent
greenhouse gas projections from
Member States indicate that the EU
is not yet on track towards its 2030
climate and energy targets.
• The magnitude and pace of future
climate change, and thus the long-term
adaptation challenges, depend on the
success of global mitigation efforts to
keep the increase in global temperature
to well below 2 °C compared with
pre‐industrial levels and to pursue
efforts to limit the increase to 1.5 °C,
as stated in the Paris Agreement.
Thematic summary assessment
Theme Past trends and outlook Prospects of meeting policy
objectives/targets
Greenhouse gas emissions
and mitigation efforts
Energy efficiency
Renewable energy sources
Climate change and
impacts on ecosystems
Climate change risks
to society
Climate change adaptation
strategies and plans
Past trends
(10-15 years)
Improving trends
dominate
Improving trends
dominate
Improving trends
dominate
Deteriorating trends
dominate
Deteriorating trends
dominate
Improving trends
dominate
Outlook
to 2030 2020 2030 2050
Developments show
a mixed picture
Largely
on track
Developments show
a mixed picture
Partly
on track
Developments show
a mixed picture
Largely
on track
Deteriorating
developments dominate
Largely not
on track
Deteriorating
developments dominate
Partly
on track
Improving
developments dominate
Partly
on track
Largely not
on track
Largely not
on track
Largely not
on track
Largely not
on track
Largely not
on track
Largely not
on track
Note:
For the methodology of the summary assessment table, see the introduction to Part 2. The justification for the colour coding is
explained in Section 7.3, Key trends and outlooks (Tables 7.4, 7.5, 7.6, 7.7, 7.8 and 7.9).
4 SOER 2020/Climate Change