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 behavior they absolutely must avoid,” to reduce fire risk.
Around 90 percent of wildfires are started by human activities, such as campfires or discarded cigarettes.
