The report, entitled Vulnerabilities of Europe’s economy to global water scarcity and drought revealed that supplies of animal feed, rice, cotton, grapes and even pistachios could be impacted in the near future as they come from regions that have a shortage of water.
In fact, over a third of Europe’s water needs come from other parts of the world, due to imported crops.
‘Right now it is more like an alert,’ said Professor Bart van den Hurk, who coordinates the EU-funded IMPREX project, which produced the report as part of its efforts to analyse the links between climate change and water.
‘The next step is really to look at climate change sentinels (indicators) in the areas of exposure … and see whether you can actually translate climate change effects in those areas to European sensitivities,’ said Prof. van den Hurk, who works for The Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute, the Dutch national weather service.
‘Can you imagine the chocolate industry without cocoa,’ said Dr Ercin, from the Water Footprint Network, a Dutch non-governmental organisation which is part of the IMPREX project.
‘We always look at the supply side of the water issue,’ said said Dr Ercin.
Analysing water demand is part of a broader effort by the IMPREX project to encourage public officials and businesses to take climate change forecasts into account when making decisions by predicting how global warming will lead to extreme weather in Europe.
‘I’m really on a mission to embed this physical climate science further down the chain,’ he said.
If you liked this article, please consider sharing it on social media.
One of the main ways of acheiving these targets is through innovation – finding ways to use less energy and to generate energy sustainably.