Chapter 2 Climate Change in Central and Eastern Europe

Along with the increasing world population and the technological advancement during the last centuries both energy consumption and the demand for land have increased simultaneously. Climate change at its estimated pace poses serious challenges for society, policy, and the economy. In order to develop suitable strategies for adaptation, fundamental knowledge about the climate in the past, present, and potentially in the future is required on a global and a regional scale. Thus, a scientific assessment of observed and projected changes of climate variables and indices is an inevitable precondition for appropriate adaptation and mitigation measures. Because the terms “weather” and “climate” are often misunderstood, a few general definitions have to be explained first. While “weather” means the state of the atmosphere in a certain moment, hour, day, or week, “climate” is defined as the statistical description of weather, including averages and variability as well as the return intervals of extremes over a period of at least 30 years [defined by the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO)] (WMO 2011). The most relevant climate parameters characterising this period are surface variablesair temperature, precipitation, radiation, humidity, cloud cover and wind. Closely related to this definition