Extremwetterkongress: Experten: Künftig mehr Hitzewellen in Deutschland

Experts at the Extreme Weather Congress in Hamburg urged action in response to climate change. "Every decade since the 1960s has been warmer than the one before," said Tobias Fuchs, a board member of the German Weather Service (DWD), as he opened the three-day conference with around 1,000 attendees. The professional gathering examined how climate change affects the occurrence of extreme weather events.

Regarding Germany, findings from the DWD indicate an increase in heatwaves and drought periods. Particularly intense was the heatwave in mid-June, with record temperatures of 41.8 degrees measured east of Magdeburg. The Robert Koch Institute estimates that around 16,000 people in Germany died from heat this summer. Fuchs explained that "the progressive climate change increases both the likelihood and intensity of such heatwaves."

He added that "it is quite possible that we will look back at this year, this period, and consider the summer currently classified as extreme as normal" by the end of the century. The Arctic ice is also changing due to climate change. The Arctic is the fastest-warming region on Earth, said Gesine Mollenhauer, deputy director of the Alfred Wegener Institute.

This will lead to ice-free conditions in the Arctic by the middle of the century, affecting the ecosystem as fish populations migrate north. Shipping in the Arctic Ocean will become easier, with geopolitical implications.