This Maltese summer has heralded three separate heat waves, with temperatures rising above the 40 degrees Celsius mark becoming more and more of a frequent occurrence.

Many have found it difficult to cope with the heat, preferring to seek refuge in their air conditioned homes instead of anything else – only to be turned out into their air conditioned cars when the country’s electricity grid decides that it can’t cope with the heat either and cuts out.

Meanwhile in Europe, temperatures have hit record highs – Sicily for instance only this week registered temperatures of 48 degrees Celsius – while wildfires have spread, forcing people out of their homes and leaving devastation in their wake.

All of this, and it’s not even the middle of August yet.

The worst realisation however is that, put simply, this is going to be the coldest summer of the rest of our lives.

Children 10 or 15 years ago were taught about climate change and global warming and were told of the consequences that could happen if no action is taken to mitigate them – but were also told that these ill-effects will likely come long after their lifetimes.

That action, however, has not come – and when it has, it has been far too minimal to have anything beyond a negligible effect – and the consequences are now not only bearing down upon us, but starting to be felt.

A report released on Monday by the United Nations found that Earth’s climate is getting so hot that temperatures in about a decade will probably blow past a level of warming that world leaders have sought to prevent – something which the UN called a “code red for humanity.”

“It’s just guaranteed that it’s going to get worse,” said report co-author Linda Mearns, a senior climate scientist at the U.S. National Centre for Atmospheric Research. “I don’t see any area that is safe ... Nowhere to run, nowhere to hide.”

The 3,000-plus-page report from 234 scientists said warming is already accelerating sea level rise, shrinking ice and worsening extremes such as heat waves, droughts, floods and storms. Tropical cyclones are getting stronger and wetter, while Arctic sea ice is dwindling in the summer and permafrost is thawing. All of these trends will get worse, the report said.

For example, the kind of heat wave that used to happen only once every 50 years now happens once a decade, and if the world warms another degree Celsius, it will happen twice every seven years, the report said.

It’s clear that action is needed. 

Malta is supposedly in a state of climate emergency, having declared it in 2019 – although you’d be hard pressed to realise given that very little, if anything at all – besides a bunch of buzzwords on sustainability and the green economy – has been done to reflect this state.

Environment Minister Aaron Farrugia told this newspaper on Thursday that the government was committed to continuing the fight against climate change and to stepping up as necessary, with the implementation of the low carbon development strategy being one component of that.

One hopes – for everyone’s sake – that these words can be transferred into action.