The summer time warmth is hitting sooner and tougher than ever throughout Europe. By 2050, temperatures could possibly be as a lot as 2.5°C larger than at the moment.
Southern European international locations are set to be most impacted by the extreme warming.
Now, as a lot of Europe faces the results of unprecedented heatwaves, Athens in Greece is already getting ready for the long run.
Final yr, town appointed Eleni Myrivili as its chief warmth officer. Her job is to seek out methods for the Greek capital to deal with ever hotter heatwaves. She is the primary and solely particular person in Europe to carry such a place.
"We have ready a lot better than final yr, we're far more ready this yr," she informed Euronews.
Temperatures this week have already hit a scorching 40°C and Athens has launched its first 'Warmth Alert' warning residents and guests of the acute climate. It is all a part of town's plan to cope with the fact of more and more excessive climate.
How is Greece getting ready for warmer summers?
"We have been specializing in three totally different pillars of actions," Myrivili explains.
The primary is concentrated on elevating consciousness of the risks. Athens is analysing information to classify heatwaves which ought to result in the creation of three classes: excessive, medium and low threat to well being.
"It is a very revolutionary methodology that we have used, it isn't simply meteorological, it has inside the classes the actual threat for the well being of individuals."
The second pillar includes guaranteeing that persons are ready to cope with excessive warmth.
"Now we have [outlined] a number of methods of defending essentially the most susceptible throughout heatwaves and of supporting the folks which can be extra uncovered to excessive warmth," Athens' warmth officer says.
Lastly, Athens is setting up vital inexperienced infrastructure enhancements to assist scale back warmth. A mission is underway to harness water from an historic, underground Roman aqueduct in an effort to inexperienced town.
It's nonetheless operational and drains round 800,000 cubic metres of water into the ocean yearly. Nothing is at present being carried out with the water so Athens is hoping to make use of it to create belts of greenery across the metropolis the place the aqueduct flows.
As chief warmth officer, Myrivili is ensuring the "warmth issue is excessive on the agenda" with this mission.
Watch the video above to listen to from the chief warmth officer of Athens.
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