As part of a report for the Climate Now program, a monthly program where Euronews reports on what is really happening on our planet, journalist Jeremy Wilks traveled to Athens, the capital of Greece, to find out how its inhabitants are adapting to the climate. warmer world.

“We are trying to redesign the center, make it have more shady areas, and make a series of cooler routes inside, to get from one place to another,” said Elissavet Bargianni, head of the Athens city thermal service.

Meanwhile, the latest data from Copernicus Climate Change Serviceshows that people on Earth around the world just experienced the warmest month of June on record.

Globally, last month’s temperatures were slightly more than 0.5 degrees Celsius above the 1991-2020 average.

If we look at the anomaly map in Europe, Ireland, England, Belgium and the Netherlands recorded the warmest June on record. Meanwhile, in Turkey, Greece, parts of the Balkans and Russia it is colder than usual.

One of the main factors driving the world record for heat is warmer sea levels. One of the maps produced for the report shows, for example, very high sea surface temperatures recorded in the North Atlantic, with extreme maximum temperatures around the British Isles.

As such, the water reaches a maximum of five degrees above the average in the west of Ireland, reaching temperatures normally recorded in late summer, not in June.

Several factors likely contributed to the warmer water: lighter winds, less contamination by fine particulates (aerosols)and the long-term impacts of climate change. Unlike carbon dioxide or methane, which absorb sunlight and cause warming, aerosols reflect sunlight back into space, which has a cooling effect.

‘Suffocated’ by the heat wave, Athena acclimated herself to a warmer world. The Greek capital is in the midst of a heatwave, with temperatures reaching 40 degrees Celsius. We’ve gone to see how the citizens adapt.

White buildings stretch to the horizon: the Greek capital is one of the most crowded cities in Europe, and also the hottest. Elissavet Bargianni, head of the city’s thermal service, noted that the outlook for climate change was bleak.

“The forecasts for the coming decades are dramatic: we will experience a lot of constant heat in the summer. We will have to adapt our way of life to this heat, and adapt,” said Elissavet Bargianni, head of the city’s thermal service. Athens.

To adjust and adapt, Athens has a comprehensive action plan that aims to raise awareness about the risks of heat to health and reflect on the city. One of the initiatives is an application for smartphones that shows the coolest walking routes, from one point to another.

“It shows the route to your destination, based on the coolest path you can follow. The algorithm calculates the temperature based on data from the satellites, and also calculates the density of trees on each route,” says Elissavet Bargianni.

The head of the city’s thermal service of Athens led the Euronews team to one of ten so-called ‘pocket gardens’ the city has created in vacant lots.

“This place is an abandoned site. There are no trees, no vegetation, no irrigation,” said Elissavet Bargianni, referring to an area in the city of Athens where one of the so-called ‘pocket garden‘.

Now the space is a place to cool off, in one of the hottest neighborhoods in the city.

“I think if you put a thermometer here under a tree and on the asphalt … you will see that there is a difference of at least two degrees Celsius,” suggested the head of the Athens city thermal service. to report makers. .

In 2019 there is 15% green open space in the city, compared to the target of 30%. Meanwhile, the cooling effect of greenery is critical, as summer temperatures in Athens have increased by an average of 1.9 degrees Celsius in the last 30 years. And… there’s more, warns Pannos meteorologist Giannopoulos.

“I think what the studies on climate change show is that the climate in Greece will be warmer, with hotter summers. But, apart from that, there will be less cold winters, and less rain, in most areas of the country. this,” said Pannos Giannopoulos, a meteorologist at Greece’s National Weather Service.

Water is the next challenge. That’s why Kostas Gerolimatos is renovating this Roman-era aqueduct. It can bring to the suburbs about 50,000 cubic meters of groundwater per year. This is the water that currently ends up in the ocean.

“If the waterways can be used, because they are still active, we want to access this water and distribute it for daily life in the surrounding environment, residents,” said Kostas Gerolimatos, project coordinator Cultural Hydrant.

In the long term, the aim is for 30% of Athens to be a ‘green space’.

“It won’t happen overnight, but it will be a ‘dead city’ if we don’t do something like this in the next few years. And… I think we will,” concluded Elissavet Bargianni, head of the thermal services section in the city Athens.

More information on the Athens climate plan can be found at euronews.com/climatenow.