Temperatures in the Netherlands are rising twice as fast as the global average – meaning the country will have to invest heavily in adapting critical infrastructure to cope with the damaging impact.
The warning is contained in a new report from the Dutch Meteorological Institute (KNMI), which reveals that the country is “warming by 0.4 per cent every 10 years, twice as fast as global average warming” and says rising sea levels pose the greatest long-term risk.
Environmental research shows that between 1990-2023 total warming from greenhouse gases caused by humans increased by 51 per cent, and KNMI director Maarten van Aalst says the institute’s findings are consistent with this backdrop.
“All 30 of the hottest years recorded by the KNMI took place after 1987 in tandem with that worldwide increase in greenhouse gases,” he said.
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“So what this underlines is that climate change is already affecting us – in fact, hitting the Netherlands quite severely.
“A more erratic climate is our new reality. We must be prepared for weather extremes we have never seen before.”
Given that about a third of the Netherlands lies below sea level, with the North Sea held back by a sophisticated system of dykes, pumps and sand dunes, the greatest long-term risk is from flooding as a result of rising sea levels.
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The last time flooding led to serious loss of life was on February 1st, 1953, when a huge storm left more than 2,000 people dead and caused damage that would have cost €5.4 billion to rebuild at today’s rates.
That devastation led to the construction of the Delta Works, a system of five enormous storm surge barriers and six dams engineered to protect areas below sea level from flooding.
Even so, a rise in sea levels, “boosted by the increasingly rapid warming of the poles”, remains, the report says, the biggest danger to the Netherlands in climate terms.
It says climate change does not necessarily mean more rain, but it will bring heavier downpours.
Fifty years ago the average number of extremely wet days a year stood at five. The figure rose to 13 in 2024 when more than 50mm of rain fell locally, including instances where motorway drivers had to clamber on to car roofs to escape rising waters.
“Roads and other infrastructure will have to be adapted to cope with the impact,” said Mr van Aalst.
He added: “Twenty years ago, the question was: are we sure this is due to greenhouse gas emissions? Now the question is: when will the next tipping point towards even more severe climate change be reached?”
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