‘Climate change kills’ Spain PM tells COP29 as floods strike again

Parts of Spain woke up to fresh warnings of dangerous flooding on Thursday just weeks after heavy rains killed more than 200 people in Valencia.

Thousands of people were evacuated from their homes in southern Spain after AEMET placed nine communities on red or orange alerts for strong storms and heavy to torrential rainfall on Tuesday. The warnings from the national meteorological agency covered Catalonia, the Balearic Islands, and parts of the Valencia and Andalusia provinces.

It comes a fortnight after at least 220 people lost their lives in Valencia during Spain’s worst flooding in decades. And just days after Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez brought the region’s tragedy to the global stage during his speech at COP29.

The DANA weather system driving the rainfall is, fortunately, not so intense this time. But these repeated extreme weather alerts are increasing pressure on world leaders to curb planet-heating emissions at the UN climate conference.

Sanchez was far from alone. Countries from all corners of the planet used the summit as a chance to share accounts of the extreme weather events that have devastated their homes. Many of these events – from droughts to hurricanes and deadly flooding – have happened in just the last 12 months.

In the words of UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, 2024 has been a “masterclass in climate destruction”.

Spanish PM brings Valencian tragedy to COP29

For Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, there was no doubt that what happened in Valencia in late October is a stark reminder of what’s at stake.

“I have come here to tell you that climate change kills and in Valencia, it has killed 220 of my compatriots,” he told world leaders gathered in Baku on Tuesday.

During his speech, he described hundreds of homes covered in mud and lamented that many people were still missing after the catastrophic weather event.

With all countries contending with the impacts of climate change, from more violent storms to intense wildfires, he said that “drastic measures” were needed. Cities too must be rebuilt to withstand the worst of what is to come, the Spanish PM added.

“Some still doubt the scientific evidence of climate change,” Sanchez told COP29. “Let’s not drag our feet. We have seen governments dither and walk backwards just to make the rich richer. This formula is leading us to disaster.”

Sanchez is not the only leader to have referenced the flooding in Spain at the UN climate conference either.

Croatia’s Prime Minister, Andrej Plenkovic, highlighted how, just this year, catastrophic floods in Spain, Bosnia and Herzegovina and southern Croatia have shown the devastating impact of rising temperatures in Europe.

“The Mediterranean, one of the most vulnerable regions, calls for urgent action,” he added.

Spain is a ‘wake-up’ call about our warming world

Sanchez circled back to Valencia at the end of his speech, saying that the only thing as important as helping the victims of the tragedy in Valencia was to prevent it from happening again.

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DANA weather systems occur when an area of low pressure gets cut off from the main flow of the jet stream. This leaves them stuck over an area, delivering rainfall for several days. When cold air high up in the atmosphere meets warm air from the Mediterranean, the storm intensifies.

Though these weather events are not unusual on the Mediterranean coastline of Spain, experts have said that climate change played a role in intensifying the heavy rainfall. A rapid analysis of what happened in Valencia by scientists at World Weather Attribution found that climate change made intense rainfall about 12 per cent heavier and twice as likely.

It sends a strong message to the world about the consequences of global warming, Secretary-General of the World Meteorological Organization Celeste Saulo told COP29 on Monday.

“The incredible amount of rain in Spain was a wake-up call about how much more water a warmer atmosphere can hold.”

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Every fraction of a degree of warming matters when it comes to increases in climate extremes, impacts and risks, she warned.

Saulo told Euronews she doesn’t think people are prepared for events of this nature.

“There is a terrible challenge in how to put together protocols that allow people to prepare and react adequately for the intensity of the phenomena that we are facing.”

With the world heading for 3.1C of warming this century without more ambitious action from global governments, it’s a sobering reminder of why the outcome of these talks is so important even as international divides deepen in Baku.

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