In 2050, the climate in London will look like that of Barcelona today. Stockholm will be like Budapest, and Paris like Canberra, according to an analysis published Wednesday, July 11, by the ETH Zurich University.
The researchers studied the climate of 520 major cities of the world, according to 19 variables including temperature and precipitation.
For these estimates, scientists have used deliberately optimistic models, that is, assuming that carbon dioxide emissions will stabilize by the middle of the century, so as to limit the rise in average temperature. globe at 1.4 ° C compared to the pre-industrial period (the world is at about + 1 ° C).
The team then compared the Paris, London, Stockholm ... of the future to the current cities, with the aim of making the changes to come more tangible. Thus the cities of the northern hemisphere will in 2050, in climatic terms, resemble those of today, which are 1,000 km to the south. Those at the equator will not undergo major warming, but will have more droughts and rains.
The authors of the study conclude that 77% of the cities of the planet will see their climate change "strikingly".