Nordic countries face mounting climate risks, professor warns

Nordic countries are facing many of the same climate challenges, including rising sea levels, flooding, wildfires and shifting fish stocks, Martin Drews, a professor of climate risk management at the Technical University of Denmark, told mbl.is.

“I study extreme weather. That is what I do,” Drews said in an interview with the Icelandic newspaper Morgunbladid.

Drews was the keynote speaker at a lunchtime meeting held by Reykjavik University last week. The event, titled “From risk to resilience: Adapting infrastructure to a changing climate”, focused on adapting critical infrastructure to climate change and an uncertain future.

“We are living through a period of great uncertainty,” Drews said when asked about temperatures approaching 50 degrees Celsius in Europe this summer. He said it was necessary to consider whether developments were moving in the right direction and whether existing infrastructure could withstand the changes.

Sea level a serious concern

The professor said the Nordic countries were largely facing the same climate-related challenges.

“Icelanders may not be directly at the centre of these events, but Denmark is in a similar position to the Netherlands. We are not particularly far above sea level, and our infrastructure and businesses are at risk in many places. This is an issue we need to start examining seriously,” he said.

He pointed to rising sea levels, which he said represented a matter of life and death for some countries.

A major challenge for the Nordic region

In Sweden and Finland, extensive forest areas could face developments similar to those in southern European forests, where lightning during thunderstorms can start wildfires, Drews said.

“There is uncertainty here, and there are factors we need to examine more closely as time goes on,” he said.

He also said heavier rainfall was increasing the risk of landslides in the Nordic countries and flooding elsewhere. At the same time, fish stocks were changing, with new species settling near Nordic countries and entering their fishing grounds.

Other species are disappearing, including species that the fishing industry has traditionally expected to catch.

“This is also a challenge, and it is a major challenge just in the Nordic countries. And I have not even started talking about similar developments around the world,” Drews said.