The European Environment Agency (EEA) is warning policymakers that climate change is posing serious risks, adding that the outcome is soon to be ‘catastrophic’ if measures are not taken urgently.

In the latest EEA report, the agency stresses that the measures should be taken in multiple sectors, most notably in healthcare, agriculture, and infrastructure, noting that events like extreme heat, and drought are becoming more common each season.

“Hundreds of thousands of people would die from heat waves, and economic losses from coastal floods alone could exceed 1 trillion euros ($1.1 trillion) per year,” the 32-page document states.

As 2023 marked the hottest year on record, experts are warning that the world already surpassed the target temperature threshold of 1.5C.

Southern Europe is likely to be affected mostly by food production-related climate risks, Al Jazeera notes, citing the EEA report, due to the lack of EU farming subsidies aimed at risk management for farmers.

“If decisive action is not taken now, most climate risks identified [in the report] could reach critical or catastrophic levels by the end of this century,” the analysis said, urging the EU to integrate climate risk into budgets and policies across sectors, Al Jazeera reports.