WRITTEN QUESTION E-2274/03 by Erik Meijer (GUE/NGL) to the Commission. Global warming, freshwater shortages, flooding of tourist destinations on Southern European coastlines and impact of displacement of holiday-makers to different times and areas.
Date: 2003-07-09
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: EU action, EU environmental policy, Mediterranean region (EU), climate change, freshwater, pollution control measures, research and development, tourism, water management

6.3.2004

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Official Journal of the European Union

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6.

Poultry meat preparations produced in Community approved establishments may be placed anywhere
on the Community market. These meat preparations must meet the relevant Community hygienic
production, labelling and marketing standards and may be commercialised chilled or frozen.

7. The addition of water or of proteins does not, by itself or necessarily, contaminate the product,

particularly if the prescriptions of the relevant Community legislation are adhered to.

Notwithstanding the foregoing, the Commission is concerned lest consumers in the European Union be
misled or misinformed about the content of meat or meat products. The Commission has therefore
ordered a review of the applicable legislation to see what improvements can be made in the interests of
consumers.

(1) OJ L 109, 6.5.2000.

(2004/C 58 E/165)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-2274/03

by Erik Meijer (GUE/NGL) to the Commission

(9 July 2003)

Subject: Global warming, freshwater shortages, flooding of tourist destinations on Southern European

coastlines and impact of displacement of holiday-makers to different times and areas

1.
Is the Commission aware that models for the prediction of climate change in the 21st century
suggest that warming will be 40 % greater in Southern Europe than, on average, in the world as a whole,
i.e. the temperature will rise by 5 °C as against 3,5 °C, which will be reflected, above all, in higher summer
temperatures and reduced precipitation?

2.
Is the Commission aware that the masses of tourists from further north in Europe who spend their
summer holidays on the coast of the Mediterranean have been found to consider temperatures above 28 °
unpleasant, so that they might stay away if systematically higher temperatures are expected?

3.
Is the Commission aware that the presence of holiday-makers in the Mediterranean region during the
peak summer period results in the consumption of vast quantities of freshwater for purposes of swimming,
showering, keeping golf courses green and extinguishing forest fires which break out partly on account of
recreation, while less and less freshwater is available?

4.
Does the Commission regard it as inevitable that coasts which are currently popular with holiday-
makers will increasingly become unusable as the sea level rises and that the adjacent land will become
drier, in view, inter alia, of the on-going warming (again exemplified by the hot June in 2003), the fact
that EU Member States are not proving sufficiently capable of complying with their Kyoto obligations, the
aloofness of the major oil consumer (cid:1) the US (cid:1) from attempts to combat the greenhouse effect, the on-
going burning down of tropical rainforests and the melting of the ice-caps at the poles and in high
mountain regions?

5.
In view of these developments, is it likely that over the next few decades the annual summer exodus
from north to south in Europe will either shift to different seasons of the year or divert to cooler and
damper coasts such as those of the North Sea and the Baltic? Is the Commission already making plans for
cushioning the resultant far-reaching impact on the environment, transport and regional economies? If so,
how?

Source: Volkskrant, 26 June 2003.

Answer given by Mrs Wallström on behalf of the Commission

(19 September 2003)

1.
The Third Assessment Report (TAR) of the Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)
recognises that projected climate changes during the 21st century have the potential to lead to future
large-scale and possible irreversible changes in Earth systems resulting in impacts at continental and global
scale. If these changes were to occur, their impacts would be widespread and sustained.

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Models show that vulnerability to climate change in Europe differs substantially between the various sub-
regions and that southern Europe and the European Arctic are more vulnerable than other parts of Europe.
The Commission is therefore aware that southern Europe may be more affected than other parts of Europe
because of the possible changes in climate. However, this would happen only if no measures to fight
climate change were taken.

While the Earth’s climate changes naturally over thousands of years, the trend has been accelerated (the
1990s was the warmest decade since 1861) through the consumption of fossil fuel and other activities.
The Commission is therefore actively working to contain and to revert this trend in order to ensure that
the human-induced climate change is substantially reduced.

2.
The Commission is indeed aware that the changes in climate may also have an effect on holiday
destinations. The Third Assessment Report indicates that recreational preferences are likely to change with
higher
temperatures. Heat waves are likely to reduce the traditional peak summer demand at
Mediterranean holiday destinations, thus increasing the number of tourists in the North Sea and Baltic
Sea resorts.

3.
The Commission is aware that the presence of holidaymakers in the Mediterranean region during the
peak season in summer increases the consumption of freshwater for various reasons. The Commission is
taking this issue into consideration while planning how to address climate change. However, it should be
noted that also existing legislation as the Water Framework Directive (1) (which entered into force on
22 December 2000 and is currently being transposed into national legislation by Member States) includes
the instruments and features to support future water quantity management needs, which may be used on
the regional level as pre-adaptation tool.

4. and 5. While prevention measures to reduce climate change gases are essential and should be the core
of Union’s policy, Article 5.3 of the Sixth Environment Action Programme (EAP) (2) recognises that
adaptation to the effects of climate change is a necessary complement. Indeed, there is now consensus in
the scientific community that, despite efforts to cut greenhouse gases, some warming will occur and to
such an extent that alongside prevention, also adaptation strategies will be necessary (3).

Adaptation has the potential to reduce adverse impacts of climate change and to enhance beneficial
impacts, but will incur costs and will not prevent all damages. Extremes, variability and rates of changes
are all key features in addressing vulnerability and adaptation to climate change, not simply changes in
average climate conditions. Human and natural systems will to some degree adapt automatically and
autonomously to climate change and planned adaptation can supplement this. The adaptation potential of
socio-economic systems in Europe is relatively high because of economic conditions, a stable population
(with the capacity to move within the region), and well-developed political, institutional and technological
support systems.

To implement Article 5.3 of the Sixth EAP, the Commission envisages building on the work of the IPCC.
However, strategic planning for this Commission’s activity in terms of time and resource is under
the Sixth Research and
in addition to the research supported under
development. Nonetheless
Technological Development (RTD) Framework Programme, various demonstration and implementation
projects are funded and, in specific areas, climate change impacts are taken into account.

The Parliament and Council Recommendation No 2002/413/EC of 30 May 2002 (4), concerning the
implementation of Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM), invites Member States to set up national
strategies for their coasts. Guiding principles and strategic elements to base the strategies on including a
holistic long-term perspective and recognition of the threats of climate change.

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Whilst there is increasing scientific certainty that there is the need for some adaptation, at this point in
time the existing lack of certainty about the extent of regional and local impacts of climate change is a
challenge for concrete adaptation projects and the detailed design of measures. Therefore, much emphasis
is laid on further exploration and quantification of possible impacts and the improvement of regional
climate change impact modelling in order to lay the ground for targeted adaptation measures.

Various projects are currently ongoing in this area. In its pan-European analysis of coastal erosion, the
EUrosion project includes the effects of sea level rise (5). Among LIFE projects, ‘Living with the Sea’ (LIFE99
(cid:1) NAT/UK/006081) looked at climate change and bio-diversity in particular, whereas the project ‘Coastal
Change, climate and instability’
looked into the increased occurrence of
landslides due to climate change (6). In the area of Structural Funds, the SIAM study is establishing the
impacts of climate change in Portugal (7). The Interreg programme supports projects such as Espace,
looking at integrated regional adaptation strategies, and Comrisk and Frame (8), focussing on flooding risk
associated, inter alia, with climate change. The European Spatial Observatory Network Espon includes a
project examining the spatial distribution and impacts of natural hazards taking account of climate
change (9).

(LIFE97 ENV/UK/000510)

these predictions within sectors of

There are several on-going European projects in the context of the Fifth RTD Framework Programme
dealing with the issues of seasonal and interannual variations of climate and their impacts on Europe. In
fact, the Demeter project has developed a reliable capability for seasonal to interannual climate prediction
and its impacts on European regions. Applications of
tourism,
agriculture, energy and health with large economic benefits have been demonstrated. (www.ecmwf.int/
research/demeter). Similarly, European research projects of climate change prediction have confirmed the
modelling results that Mediterranean is a sensitive area to be affected by changing precipitation and
temperature patterns resulting from increasing atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases leading to
climate change. Several projects also deal with risk of flooding and forest fires in European regions due to
expected climate change. In particular, the EFFS (10) project (http://effs.wldelft.nl/) has developed a European
capability to forecast flood events from four to ten days in advance, providing valuable pre-warning
information to water-authorities. The Spread project (http://www.algosystems.gr/spread/) is developing a
framework for the development and implementation of an integrated forest fire management system for
Europe. In addition, the Sixth Framework RTD Programme (2003-2006) offers new opportunities for
research on these issues under its Priority theme Global Change and Ecosystems.

Moreover, in various Member States national projects or programmes examine the issue of climate change
impacts (e.g. Italy: ENEA study; United Kingdom: Climate change impact programme).

One of the aims of all these projects is to collect data in order to identify possible streams of action.

(1) Directive 2000/60/EC of the Parliament and of the Council of 23 October 2000 establishing a framework for

Community action in the field of water policy, OJ L 327, 22.10.2000.

(2) Decision No 1600/2002/EC of the Parliament and of

the Council of 22 July 2002 laying down the Sixth

(3)

Community Environment Action Programme; OJ L 242, 10.9.2002.
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate change,
‘Climate Change 2001:Working Group II: Impacts, Adaptation and
Vulnerability’, United Nations Environment Programme/World Meteorological Organisation (UNEP/WMO) (http://
www.grida.no/climate/ipcc_tar/wg2/index.htm).

(4) OJ L 148, 6.6.2002.
(5) Pilot action on budget line B4-3090B, following an amendment by the Parliament; (http://www.eurosion.org).
(6) LIFE projects: (http://europa.eu.int/comm/environment/life/project/index.htm).
(7) Climate change in Portugal: scenarios, impacts and adaptation measures, [SIAM II ref. to be added].
(8) Projects of

respectively the Northwest Europe programme (http://www.nweurope.org) and the North sea

programme (http://www.interregnorthsea.org/index.asp?id=1).

(9) http://www.espon.lu
(10) European Flood Forecasting System.