Why France and Europe are warming faster than average

On April 22, two major organizations, the World Meteorological Organization and the European Copernicus Observatory, signed a press release warning of the importance of warming on the old continent. “The three hottest years on record in Europe have all occurred since 2020Before a concrete observation we can read: It is the fastest warming continent, with temperatures rising twice as fast as the global average. » A publication that highlights a fundamental aspect of climate science, even more important in an era marked by change linked to human activity: not all parts of the planet are warming equally.

“It is one of the characteristics of the Earth system that climate changes are not uniform in space, with significant temperature differences especially on the continents and near the Arctic, Summarizes Aurélien Ribes, researcher at Météo-France at the National Center for Meteorological Research (CNRM, CNRS). This was the case during the last ice age, and is still the case today, with significant differences depending on the extent of human-caused global warming. »

In its Sixth Assessment Report, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) identifies regions where temperatures will increase the fastest. Semi-arid regions, areas located in the mid-latitudes such as the United States and much of China, and areas affected by the South American monsoon in Brazil are increasing twice as fast as the global average.

“The Arctic is expected to see the largest temperature increase in colder days, three times the rate of global warming”, write the scientists, when equatorial regions experience less rapid change and when certain regions cool, such as the North Atlantic region, south of Greenland, due to a slowdown in heat evaporation. Europe bears the brunt of this reality. According to the Copernicus data, 2.3 degrees Celsius has warmed since pre-industrial times, compared to the global average of 1.2 degrees to 1.3 degrees Celsius.

More intense, frequent heat waves

There are many reasons for these thousand nuances in global change. The long-studied and most significant polar warming in the Arctic is mainly caused by a positive feedback loop: melting ice reduces the albedo, i.e. the Earth’s ability to reflect rays. the sun Greater warming of Europe is partly explained by this drop in albedo in the most northern regions and countries in central and eastern Europe with reduced snow cover.

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