Climate news: Code red for heat, smog alerts and political impasse

Today will be the warmest day of the current heatwave, according to the Royal Meteorological Institute (RMI), which has announced a code red for heat in the provinces of Limburg and Liège. Areas of the provinces will reach 40°C. There is also a chance of afternoon thunderstorms in the eastern part of Belgium.

Overnight temperatures should be slightly cooler, with forecasts from 20°C to 25°C. Temperatures tomorrow will also soar into the mid-30s before cooling off to the upper 20s on Sunday.

In Limburg it will be slightly warmer over the weekend, and at the coast around 30°C on Saturday, dipping to the mid-20s on Sunday, with rain. The heat wave will end on Monday, with temperatures in the mid-20 forecast for next week.

Events around Belgium are being cancelled due to the heatwave, including Waterloo’s re-enactment weekend and Lier’s Zomerbraderij. The festival Genk on Stage will go ahead with changes to the programme to prevent acts from playing during the hottest part of the day. Ghent’s SMAK museum has closed its doors until next week as the air conditioning cannot keep up with the rising temperatures in the galleries.

There is a summer smog alert today and tomorrow, particularly in Antwerp province, Brussels and the Kortrijk area. Children, the elderly, people with lung conditions or anyone sensitive to air pollution should try to stay indoors but certainly not engage in any strenuous activity out-of-doors.

People will lung diseases “already have reduced lung function, and this will decline even further,” said air quality expert Frans Fierens of the Interregional Cell for the Environment (Ircel). He also points out that rural areas experience more extreme photochemical smog – commonly referred to as summer smog – than the cities. 

Meanwhile, satellite images show that it is sometimes more than 20°C cooler in forested areas than in urban areas. While temperatures in the centre of Brussels could reach up to 47°C, next door in the Sonian forest it will remain in the mid-20s.

This is an example of urban heat islands, where asphalt and concrete surrounded by tall buildings hold heat in and do not easily cool off at night. This is the opposite of nature areas, where soil, trees and other vegetation ensure far cooler temperatures.

Finally, politicians at the regional and federal level are once again arguing about a climate package, as the effects of climate change become more and more apparent. The heatwave in Belgium and the rest of Europe “should serve as a wake-up call for every policy level and all our colleagues in the Flemish government,” said Flemish climate minister Hans Bonte (Vooruit), “This should bring us to the realization that we need to commit even more to tackling the climate crisis.”

According to climate scientists Wim Thierry, speaking in Terzake, “deadly heatwaves will double in 10 years’ time” and “only if we decrease emissions to zero will we be able to be able to stop it and stabilise the number of hot days.”

Flanders’ climate plan, introduced last summer – more than a year later than Europe requested – provides measures to reduce emissions by 40% by 2030. “This misery, this confrontation with climate change, should motivate us to work even harder,” says Bonte, who, however, has not alternative plan. He did say that he wants to invest more in energy-efficient homes and in alternative energies.

Bonte was notably not invited to a meeting planned by federal climate minister Jean-Luc Crucke (Les Engagés). Earlier this week Crucke sent an official letter to 21 ministers in Europe asking them to come together on 1 July to discuss measures to tackle the next heat wave.

Crucke’s 12-point plan includes a modernised heat warning system, the establishment of public air-conditioned spaces and investment in defence and civil protection services.

Flanders see climate measures as a regional competence and rejected Crucke’s attempts last year to get all three regions to agree to one national climate change plan. “An additional working group involving a large number of cabinets and administrations threatens to add complexity without strengthening decision-making,” said a spokesperson from Flemish minister-president Matthias Diependaele’s office this week.

It is, however, required that Belgium present one plan at the EU level. Crucke, therefore, wants to abandon regional jurisdiction. “We can continue to argue that these matters fall exclusively within the competence of one or the other,” he wrote in his letter. “Or we can acknowledge that protecting our citizens today requires more cooperation.”

As for Diependaele (N-VA), he is not prepared to alter Flanders’ current course, telling the Flemish parliament: “We need to ensure the right support without fuelling panic.”