EU Warns Wildfire Response Must Keep Up with Rising Climate Threats
BRUSSELS — The European Union’s response to wildfires needs more funding, greater focus on forest management, and enhanced education about fire risk as climate change accelerates, the bloc’s Crisis Management Commissioner said Tuesday.
“Climate change is accelerating. So our response must evolve just as quickly,” Hadja Lahbib told Reuters. “We must prepare for risks before disasters strike, and not simply react afterwards.”
The EU coordinates extra resources pooled from European countries when a member state requests emergency help, and holds its own “RescEU” reserve fleet of 22 firefighting aircraft and five helicopters. As of Tuesday, the EU had deployed seven planes and four helicopters to France, and six planes and three ground teams to Spain.
Around 90 percent of wildfires are started by human activities such as campfires or discarded cigarettes, Lahbib noted, stressing that countries should invest more EU funding in forest management and better educate citizens on fire prevention.
The EU stationed a record number of more than 770 firefighters across at-risk countries ahead of this summer, reflecting how human-caused climate change is intensifying the heat and drought that allow wildfires to spread faster and burn longer. EU officials have said they are preparing for fires to still be burning in November.
Lahbib said the Commission has proposed more than doubling crisis-response funding to €10.7 billion in the next EU budget, though member states have scaled that back to €9.1 billion. Meanwhile, the EU is purchasing its own permanent firefighting fleet, with 12 Canadair planes and five helicopters due for delivery from 2027 to 2030.
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