Tag: climate change

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Unprecedented Wildfires Ravage Europe

Wildfires in Europe 2026

Wildfires Across Europe. In a summer plagued by extreme drought and unrelenting heat, more European land has been consumed by fire than ever before recorded.

With no end in sight, the data reveals the full extent of the devastation.

Wildfires in Europe 2026

Record-Breaking Devastation

Copernicus data shows that aside from parts of Scandinavia and the Baltic states, virtually no region in Europe has escaped the flames. By mid-July, the fires set a grim milestone: never in recorded history has so much European land burned in a single year.

435,000 hectares of land burned across Europe in the first seven months of 2026.

172,000 hectares was the previous twenty-year average for the same period (January through July).

Regional Impact and High-Intensity Zones

NASA satellite data analyzing thermal radiation reveals that the highest intensity fires (measured in Fire Radiative Power) are currently concentrated in:

Greece: Attica region

Portugal: Northern territory (Porto and Guarda)

Spain: Valencia, Madrid, and Castile and León

France: Bordeaux / Aquitaine region

Turkey: Aydın Province

In France, more than 90,000 hectares have burned, marking the highest figure on record for the country. Spain has seen over 219,000 hectares destroyed, approaching the historic peaks set in 2024 and 2025.

While the relative damage in Portugal and Greece appears lower in absolute acreage, severe fires broke out in regions such as Crete, resulting in several casualties. Proportional to its land area, Portugal has seen higher burn rates than France or Spain, though local authorities possess extensive experience managing and combating forest fires.

Climate Analysis and Projections

Dr. Clair Barnes, a statistician and extreme weather climate researcher at Imperial College London, highlighted the compounding risks:

“And it is still early in the season. With another heatwave looming, these findings are extremely alarming. We are seeing time and again how climate change creates the hot, dry, and highly flammable conditions that fuel these wildfires.”

Recent analysis by the World Weather Attribution consortium indicates that global warming has made hot, dry, and windy conditions twenty times more likely in Spain and twice as likely in France compared to pre-industrial levels.

Where will this end?

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Europe Warming Twice as Fast as Global Average

Global Warming

Key Findings from Copernicus Report

Europe is currently the fastest warming continent on Earth, with temperatures rising at double the global average rate. According to the latest findings from the EU climate monitoring service, Copernicus, the continent is now approximately 2.5°C warmer than in the pre-industrial era. This rapid shift is creating a profound impact on ecosystems, biodiversity, and regional stability.

Global Warming

The Arctic Feedback Loop

A primary driver behind this accelerated warming is the proximity to the Arctic. As northern ice cover retreats, the earth loses its ability to reflect sunlight. This causes the dark ocean waters to absorb more heat, creating a self-reinforcing cycle that disproportionately affects the European landmass, even in southern regions.

Shifting Winters and Extreme Heat

The geographical distribution of traditional winter weather is shrinking significantly.

  • Vanishing Frost: In many parts of Western Europe, the historical norm of two consecutive weeks of sub-zero temperatures has nearly disappeared since 1990.
  • Northern Heatwaves: Regions just below the Arctic Circle have recorded unprecedented three-week heatwaves with temperatures climbing to 30°C.
  • Marine Heat: The Mediterranean and the Atlantic waters near the European coast have reached “exceptionally high” surface temperatures, fueling extreme weather events on land.

Environmental Vulnerabilities

The report highlights the critical state of European carbon sinks, natural areas that absorb CO2.

  • Seagrass Meadows: In the Mediterranean, Posidonia oceanica meadows have declined by 34% over the last fifty years due to rising water temperatures.
  • Peatlands: Vital areas like the Peel regions in the Netherlands are under threat. As water levels drop, these carbon-rich lands dry out, increasing the risk of peat fires

The degradation of these areas creates a dangerous feedback loop: as they disappear or burn, they release stored carbon back into the atmosphere, further accelerating the very climate change that is destroying them.

Wildfires and Record Emissions

The combination of dried-out landscapes and intense heatwaves in Southern Europe has led to a dramatic increase in wildfire activity. Last year, the total area burned and the resulting carbon emissions reached record highs for the continent, particularly impacting Spain and Portugal.

This summary is based on the 2026 European State of the Climate report by Copernicus and the World Meteorological Organization -> https://climate.copernicus.eu/sites/default/files/custom-uploads/ESOTC-2025/ESOTC-2025-report.pdf

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Study: €43 Billion in Economic Damage from Extreme Weather in Europe This Summer

Heatwaves, droughts, and floods that struck Europe over the past summer caused an estimated €43 billion in immediate economic losses, according to a new study by the University of Mannheim in collaboration with economists from the European Central Bank.

The researchers looked at the true cost of climate change in a broad sense: not only the direct and tangible destruction of homes and crops, but also indirect effects such as disruptions to rail transport and reduced labor productivity during extreme heat. Using meteorological data and economic modeling, they calculated that the macro-economic costs could rise to €126 billion by 2029.

The authors stress that their estimates are “conservative,” since several major events—such as the record-breaking wildfires in Southern Europe last month—were not included in the analysis.

Unequal Impact Across Europe

The damage is not evenly distributed. Low-income regions and those with higher temperatures are hit the hardest. Spain, France, and Italy, which faced prolonged heatwaves and drought, each recorded losses exceeding €10 billion this year alone. In the medium term, these costs could rise beyond €30 billion per country.

Central and Northern Europe saw less immediate damage, but floods are becoming increasingly common there as well, suggesting that the costs of climate change will continue to mount across the continent.

Long-Term Consequences

The study also highlights the long-term drag on productivity. Four years after a drought, a region’s GDP is on average 3 percentage points lower than before. In the case of flooding, GDP remains 2.8 percentage points lower.

These findings underscore how climate extremes are not only an environmental challenge but also a profound economic threat—one that will shape Europe’s future growth and resilience in the years to come.

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Why the Energy Transition Will Be Much Cheaper Than You Think

Most analysts overestimate energy demand and underestimate technological advances

Conventional wisdom suggests decarbonizing the global economy will be exorbitantly expensive, but this is a misconception.

New analysis reveals the cost of transitioning to clean energy is far lower than predicted, primarily due to overestimated energy demand, underestimated technological advancements, and the failure to account for inevitable investments in energy infrastructure regardless of its source.

@roelthijssen

Key Points:

Overblown Cost Estimates

Many models assume rapid emission cuts, high energy demand, and inflated economic growth. Adjusting these assumptions significantly lowers cost projections.

Cheaper Technology

Advances in renewable energy, such as solar and wind, have drastically reduced costs, making clean energy investments more affordable.

Business-as-Usual Comparison

Even without decarbonization, the world would still invest heavily in energy infrastructure, minimizing the additional costs of going green.

Optimistic Outlook

Incremental costs of achieving a 2°C warming limit are as low as 0.5% of global GDP annually, challenging narratives that green transitions are financially unfeasible.

Despite bottlenecks, such as high costs in poorer countries and political inefficiencies, decarbonization is affordable and crucial.

While limiting warming to 1.5°C may be unrealistic, staying below 2°C is achievable with lower-than-anticipated costs.

Addressing climate change remains a manageable and necessary challenge.

See: https://www.economist.com/interactive/briefing/2024/11/14/the-energy-transition-will-be-much-cheaper-than-you-think

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Europe must protect its own green industry against Chinese overcapacity

Something remarkable is happening in China. With potentially significant consequences for Europe. Last week, The Economist reported that the fall in profitability of Chinese companies has never been as severe as it is now.

Well, you might think they would go bankrupt. But that doesn’t happen. The influx of the Chinese government continues, and these companies keep producing. China is creating ‘overproduction’ to keep its own economy going. The country produces large quantities of electric cars, solar panels, and wind turbines. This drives prices down significantly. Good for the consumer, good for the sustainable energy transition.

What exactly is wrong with this? A lot.

Because it’s more than just the consumer and the energy transition. Every society needs an industrial base to provide everyone with decent work: whether local or migrant, man or woman, theoretically or practically educated. Not only to give everyone an income safely, but especially to give everyone a decent place in a community: meaningful work, self-confidence, a social network. This fact often remains underexposed in the industrialized rich Western economies. China has realized this and has industrialized at breakneck speed. It is not just about increasing consumption; it directly involves the core of society. This affected millions of people and gave rise to a middle class. It became the vital breeding ground for discontent in industrial states like Ohio, Michigan, and Wisconsin. It was precisely from these areas that the victory of Trump in 2016 emerged.

The new wave of overcapacity that China is creating will hit Europe especially hard.

America has since better shielded its own industry with its industrial policy, the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which includes higher energy prices. The blow will be even greater here. Chinese overproduction is much larger, and Europe has already lost twice as much production. Moreover, the social fabric in large European countries has been showing deep cracks. The rise of extremist rights in France and Germany and the shocking results in England illustrate this. And this process threatens to accelerate further.

Europe must come out of this. It is precisely here that the consensus was based on globalization for a long time. The idea was always that purchasing power would increase and that as a result, everyone would have better things: things that are made elsewhere that are the best (read: cheapest). Yes, but that only works if you have your own industry for everything that is needed.

Yet in 2019, when the European Commission laid the foundation for its Green Deal, it was written that what was needed was a massive scaling up of the production of wind turbines, solar panels, and electric cars in the European Union. Not to mention the question of where all those things would come from. Europe didn’t realize that at the time, but that should have been the purpose of the new green industry.

Five years later, three times the amount of production has been outsourced worldwide. Then Russia invaded Ukraine, and it became clear that raw materials for our prosperity were not subject to the laws of Friedman but rather to the laws of Putin and Xi. In response, China is accelerating its own industry.

The European Commission has now realized that and has come up with the ‘Net Zero Industry Act.’ A European answer to the American IRA. But where the IRA is well-funded with an estimated $2 billion annually, the money and ambition in the European Industry Act is completely lacking.

The coming months must bring about change.

Europe must allow the green industrial revolution to take place here and show China where to go. Not because of the climate. But primarily because society demands it. An agreement must be made between the ECB president and the European heads of government to direct their policy towards prosperity in their own countries. How much industry is needed for that? How much prosperity must come from that? Europe must now take that step. Otherwise, the Chinese will keep shouting that there’s no alternative. But that can’t last much longer.

This piece was published by Diederik Samsom in Dutch. See the original here: https://www.volkskrant.nl/columns-opinie/europa-moet-de-eigen-groene-industrie-beschermen-tegen-chinese-overcapaciteit~bda61e7d/

Diederik Samson is a Dutch physicist, former politician, and columnist for de Volkskrant

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For the first time in history, more electricity comes from solar and wind than fossil fuels in the EU

In Europe, for the first time over a six-month period, more electricity was produced from solar and wind than from fossil fuels.

Electricity from solar panels and wind turbines grew to 30 percent of total production in the European Union over the past six months. At the same time, production from fossil fuels fell to 27 percent. The remaining electricity is generated from sources such as hydro and nuclear power.

In thirteen EU countries, more electricity was generated from solar and wind than from coal and gas. This milestone was reached for the first time in Germany, Belgium, Hungary, and the Netherlands.


Can the most polluting country save the climate?


Experts are optimistic about the speed of the energy transition, with China playing a key role.


The fact that, for the first time in Europe, more electricity is being produced from solar and wind than from fossil fuels over a six-month period is a milestone, but it only concerns electricity, which accounts for 20 percent of our energy demand.


Although electricity from solar and wind is increasing and the demand for electricity is decreasing, the price of electricity is barely falling. As long as gas plants are still needed, the electricity sector suffers from high gas prices. This is because the price depends on the most expensive generation method, which is often gas plants. These are used when wind and solar are not available.


The bottleneck in the use of solar and wind energy is mainly in storage. Currently, we can hardly store electricity temporarily when demand is lower than production. This is a pity because it means we “waste” a lot of electricity.