Europe is suffering an acute crisis that, bafflingly, gets scant attention in Ireland’s stated priorities for the European Presidency. The fact that climate change is warming Europe twice as fast as the global average has been tragically epitomised this past week by the deaths of at least a dozen people in the exceptionally severe and fast-moving wildfire in Spain’s Almeria province.As always, no single event can be directly attributed to climate change, but the conditions created by our rapidly heating planet make such disasters ever more likely. For example, exceptionally heavy rainfall in the spring generated unusually dense scrub vegetation this year in many parts of France and Spain. Three successive heatwaves then turned much of this vegetation into a massive fuel source, which has ignited at a record number of points across the southern continent.In 2026, the EU as a whole has experienced 314 fires of over 30 hectares each, almost double the number at the same date last year. By early July, 160,000 hectares had been incinerated. The average since 2006 was 100,000 hectares burned by this point.Twelve thousand people had to be evacuated due to a wildfire in the French Pyrenees, while this week saw aeroplanes scooping water from the Seine to fight a wildfire near Paris.Recurrent heatwave conditions have less visibly dramatic but equally tragic consequences, with 10,000 excess deaths in Europe estimated due to the elevated temperatures in June alone.The image of southern Europe, in particular, as a pleasantly sunny tourist paradise is rapidly being replaced by one of insufferable periods of heat, punctuated by rising numbers of infernos.Climate change is – the evidence shows – making many cherished European places increasingly uninhabitable. Amid global geopolitical tensions , riven by wars, it is understandable that issues like security feature high on the Irish presidency agenda. But it beggars belief that the climate crisis does not merit a mention in the Government’s main statement of priorities.