The climate of the future

In terms of future climate change, Denmark is a robust country. This is primarily due to a long tradition of legislation that prevents new building development in river valleys, along coastlines and in forests. Agricultural land is well-drained and many farmers are able to irrigate in dry periods.

Moreover, the Danish population is aware of the risks and potential consequences of future extreme weather events, and Denmark already has systematic warning systems.

The climate of the future will be warmer and more extreme.

The average temperature in Denmark has risen by 1.5°C since 1873. In the same period, precipitation has increased by 15% and water levels have also changed. The global average temperature has risen by approximately 1.1°C since the second half of the 19th century.

Human activities are the major cause of this global warming: emissions of CO2 from burning coal, oil and gas, in particular, but also felling forests and emissions of other greenhouse gases. How much the climate will change in the future depends on the amount of greenhouse gases we continue to emit into the atmosphere.

Climate scenarios

The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) bases its reports on several new future climate scenarios. The scenarios are based on future greenhouse gas emissions trends and, thus, on the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. The Danish Meteorological Institute has mapped climate change in Denmark based on these scenarios.

The IPCC predicts that by the end of the century the global mean temperature will have increased by 1.4 ºC compared to the second half of the 19th century for the lowest scenario, and 4.4ºC for the highest.