STORY: Expert calls for more public awareness for coping with climate change in Europe
SHOOTING TIME: Oct. 3, 2024
DATELINE: Oct. 5, 2024
LENGTH: 00:02:04
LOCATION: London
CATEGORY: ENVIRONMENT

SHOTLIST:
1. various of the views in Europe
2. SOUNDBITE (English): MANOJ JOSHI, Professor of Climate Dynamics from University of East Anglia

STORYLINE:

Storm-triggered floods hit central Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) on Friday, killing 19 and leaving many others missing.

In recent months, countries such as Poland, Austria, the Czech Republic, and Romania have also experienced catastrophic floods, resulting in at least 26 fatalities, economic damage, and widespread disruptions.

An expert said that the escalating extreme weather in Europe, from storms and hails to floods and heatwaves, is a warning sign of the growing impact of climate change.

SOUNDBITE (English): MANOJ JOSHI, Professor of Climate Dynamics from University of East Anglia
"Essentially, a big storm has packed itself over Central Europe, and a huge amount of rain, and the snow in some places has come down, and of course, that has led to flooding. Events like this are very rare. They are freak events. But the amount of rain that has come down, that's consistent with the effects of climate change. So, it's an event whose magnitude has very likely been made worse by the effects of climate change.
There's evidence that they're increasing in severity. 
Given where we are with emissions, it looks like temperatures will keep on going up till 2050. What happens now will actually affect the climate more in the 2050s, '60s, and '70s. It's a crucial part of climate change that reducing emissions now affects the temperatures that you get to, a few decades down the line. It's a crucial thing to understand.
Lots of countries have net-zero trajectories.
Achieving net-zero targets will, in order to keep a global temperature change down to a minimum, and it's certainly something we need to do because the higher the temperature goes, the more likely events like these are.
Climate change is one of a number of environmental problems we have. So it's really as well as thinking about climate change on a larger level, it's more thinking about the sustainability of our civilization."

Xinhua News Agency correspondents reporting from London.
(XHTV)