European Environment Agency: Europe is the fastest warming continent. Since the 1980s, warming on the European mainland has been about twice as fast as the global average. Heat is the greatest and most urgent climate risk to human health, according to the report. Ecosystems that protect people from heat must be preserved. People and structures must be protected from floods and forest fires, the report says. If decisive action is not taken now, most of the identified climate risks could reach critical or catastrophic levels by the end of this century.