The Guardian view on Europe’s wildfires: politics must catch up with the new reality | Editorial

Europe is currently enduring a destructive wildfire season, with France and Spain seeing massive evacuations and record land destruction. A new phenomenon called a pyrocumulonimbus—a fire-generated thunderstorm—is complicating efforts for firefighters in the Bordeaux region. This season marks the third major heatwave in France, and the scale of the damage surpasses that of previous years by significant margins.

While officials like Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez link these events to the climate emergency, political responses remain inconsistent. Some European governments are actively cutting funds for climate adaptation or proposing to weaken emissions regulations to prioritize short-term industrial competitiveness. This approach creates a false choice between environmental policy and economic growth.

Experts warn that the rapid rate of warming is moving faster than current policy frameworks. If the warming trend continues at this pace, the 1.5C limit set by the Paris Agreement will become impossible to maintain by 2030. The current political tendency to hit the brakes on green policy ignores the physical reality of a heating planet. Without a shift in strategy, the continent remains vulnerable to increasingly frequent and intense disasters.

The data shows that climate change is no longer a future threat but a present danger. Leaders are facing a choice between adapting to this new landscape or failing to protect their populations from the direct consequences of rising temperatures. Realism requires acknowledging that environmental stability is a prerequisite for economic security.