Europe on fire: Wildfire trends in the EU and how to prevent them

As climate change leads to higher average temperatures and more erratic rainfall, Europe is predicted to experience an increase in the scale and duration of its wildfires.

Last year, fires destroyed nearly 800,000 hectares of land across the EU, causing devastation, destroying habitats, releasing carbon emissions and threatening livelihoods.

The Mediterranean saw some of the worst effects as summer heatwaves pushed temperatures in the region into the mid-40°Cs. Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, France, Italy, Portugal, Slovenia and Spain were among the countries that saw more land burnt in 2022 than the 2006-2021 average.

'Mega fire' conditions increasing with climate change

According to the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report, the number of wildfires will increase as global temperatures rise and areas experience less rainfall, creating the perfect conditions for bigger, more deadly wildfires.

“During summer, the fire risk is always high due to higher temperatures and dryer conditions,” said Mark Parrington, a senior scientist at the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS), part of the EU's earth observation programme.

But increasing global temperature is intensifying the phenomenon, Parrington told EURACTIV.

Higher temperatures and persistent drought conditions in the summer “lead to an increased level of flammability,” which is “how easily vegetation will burn when there is an ignition,” he explained.

For instance, in 2022, a heatwave across the Iberian Peninsula and southwest of France increased the number of fires that spread across the region.

Overall, the world's temperature has risen over 1°C from pre-industrial levels, with experts warning that every incremental increase will damage the climate.

Europe has been warming faster than any other continent in recent decades, with temperatures increasing at twice the global average rate, according to the latest report from Copernicus.

Fires burning earlier and further north

So far this year, wildfires have burnt more land than average. In March, Spain had temperatures of about 30°C, and the first major wildfire of the year scorched more than 4,000 hectares of forest. 

As temperatures increase, fires have also started to affect regions previously immune in central and northern Europe, according to the European Environment Agency.

With fire risks moving north to Boreal forests in high-latitude environments, EU countries must step up on adaptation and prevention measures rather than just focus on putting out fires.

“What I observe in Europe is that many times we are talking about aeroplanes and how many aeroplanes are there to bring water to burning areas, and how do we share the aeroplanes across Europe,” said Zita Sebesvari, senior scientist at the United Nations University Institute for Environment and Human Security (UNU-EHS) and lead author of the Interconnected Disaster Risks Report.

“I think this is all important, but with this method, we will not keep up...we need a different strategy," she added.

Traditional practices such as land management, prescribed fire, and grazing could become important prevention measures if done properly, the scientist said.

She suggested several additional ways Europe could explore mega fire prevention, including prescribed fire or controlled burning when experts intentionally start a fire to manage a forest.

According to Sebesvari, prescribed fire is well known in places like Australia and the US as a way to remove the debris that would fuel mega-fires. But it requires knowledge, including spotting the right weather conditions and understanding how to contain the blaze.

Other prevention measures include using grazing animals to remove vegetation that would otherwise fuel fires and implementing a mosaic landscape, which is a heterogeneous area composed of different communities or a cluster of different ecosystems. 

Pollution from fires is everyone's problem

Not only is the area affected by fires increasing, but regions well beyond those that burn can be impacted by the vast quantities of smoke, soot and other pollutants released into the air when vegetation burns.

Last year, carbon emissions from wildfires in the EU and UK broke a previous record set in 2007. The wildfires in southwest France and the Iberian Peninsula were a major reason for this, according to data from the EU’s Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS).

This air pollution knows no boundaries as wildfire smoke can rise many kilometres into the upper atmosphere, where the winds are faster, spreading it on a continental scale, Parrington said.

“Sometimes the question is why should we be concerned with fires happening in the Arctic, North America, or other places? Well, I think under those conditions where we see an increase in fires, then that smoke transport basically links everybody together,” he added.

“I don’t believe there was much long-range transport from European fires to the Arctic in 2022, but could be higher risk if more high latitude fires, as is expected at some point in the future.”

[Additional reporting by Kira Taylor. Edited by Frédéric Simon/Alice Taylor]