Wildfire response must evolve to keep pace with climate change, EU says

BRUSSELS – The European Union’s response to wildfires needs more funding, greater focus on forest management and enhanced education about fire risk as the climate changes, the head of the bloc’s crisis response said, as France and Spain battle deadly blazes.

Wildfires have forced unprecedented evacuations of tens of thousands of people across France and Spain, and torn through a region already battered by a blisteringly hot and dry summer.

“Climate change is accelerating. So our response must evolve just as quickly,” Hadja Lahbib, the EU’s Crisis Management Commissioner, told Reuters. “We must prepare for risks before disasters strike, and not simply react afterwards.”

Lahbib said it was not enough to just purchase more firefighting equipment, and that countries should also be investing more of their EU funding in forest management practices that reduce wildfire risk, and should better educate citizens on “what behaviour they absolutely must avoid”, to reduce fire risk.

Around 90 per cent of wildfires are started by human activities, such as campfires or discarded cigarettes.

Threat means capacity needs to be strengthened

However, the EU has a limited role in managing wildfires, responsibility for which lies with national governments.

Brussels coordinates the deployment of extra resources pooled from European countries, when a country requests emergency help. The EU also holds its own “RescEU” reserve fleet of 22 firefighting aircraft and five helicopters, contracted from its member countries.

As of July 28, the EU had coordinated the deployment of seven planes and four helicopters to France, and six planes and three ground forest firefighting teams to Spain.

Climate change is increasing the demands on the system. The EU stationed more than 770 firefighters across at-risk countries, a record number, 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.

“The scale and intensity of these disasters mean we will need to confirm strengthening our collective capacity,” Lahbib said, adding that the Commission had proposed more than doubling crisis-response funding in the next EU budget, to €10.7 billion (S$15.8 billion).

EU countries negotiating the budget have scaled that back to €9.1 billion, their latest compromise proposal showed.

Meanwhile, the EU is purchasing its own permanent firefighting fleet, with 12 Canadair firefighting planes and five helicopters due to be delivered from 2027-2030. REUTERS