At this rate, damage this year could surpass the record, set last year
Calculating the cost of the wildfires in France, Spain and now elsewhere across the continent, is secondary to extinguishing the blazes. Yet as the extent of damage grows, the economics of extreme weather become more acute.
The scale of devastation is on course to break previous records. Last year saw more than one million hectares burn across the EU; not even halfway through the season, some 435,000 hectares have gone up in smoke this year.
The crises have highlighted gaps in emergency responses – notably a lack of firefighting aircraft, even with the bloc’s Civil Protection Mechanism directing resources to the worst affected areas. The EU’s Emergency Response Coordination Centre is also bracing for outbreaks in Italy and Greece in the coming weeks, alongside further fires in France and Spain.
As the fires spread, so too will the economic impact, making summers expensive for insurers – or the governments that are left footing the bill for ravaged property and infrastructure.
