The European Commission has recognised that European policies are failing to match the accelerating pace and impacts of climate change and pledged to "double down" efforts to mitigate climate change following last week's extreme and deadly heatwave across Western Europe.
EU officials have said heatwaves are likely to recur this summer and stressed that the bloc must shift from reacting to disasters to preventing them, with a climate resilience strategy set to be launched in the fourth quarter of the year.
"We want to come forward with a very robust, comprehensive package and framework that facilitates and empowers the European economy as a whole, at all different levels of governance – national, regional or local level, as well as the level of the Union," an EU official told reporters, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The Commission said that around 75 percent of climate-related fatalities in Europe are now linked to heat stress, underlining how extreme temperatures have become the continent's principal climate hazard. The World Health Organization's latest death toll estimate from the recent heatwave now stands at 1,300.
The EU executive spokesperson said the warning is backed by the 2024 European Climate Risk Assessment, which concluded that current European policies are insufficient to address the speed and scale of climate change.
