Climate crisis accelerates as EU prepares to rewrite its climate laws
Posted on April, 29 2026
The European State of the Climate report published today by Copernicus, the EU’s Earth observation programme, confirms that Europe remains the fastest warming continent in the world. Growing levels of greenhouse gases are already fuelling more frequent heatwaves, droughts and the largest wildfires on record. Once again, the report is a reminder that current climate action is not keeping pace with the scale of the crisis.
“Year after year these reports paint an ever-starker picture of how quickly Europe’s climate is deteriorating. The impacts are no longer distant or theoretical. Last year saw record-breaking temperatures on land and sea and more than a million hectares of forest burnt by wildfires. As the EU prepares to rewrite its climate laws for the period after 2030, it should be aiming to exceed the 90% target set for 2040, and to do so without relying on international offsets.” said Alex Mason, Head of Climate and Energy at WWF EU.
The report paints a picture of climate extremes, with almost the whole of Europe experiencing above average temperatures, resulting in the highest annual sea surface temperature, the second most severe heatwave on record and below average river flows for almost the whole year.
This year’s findings come at a pivotal political moment. Over the next year, the EU will begin reshaping its climate laws for the period after 2030. Delaying action, weakening rules or relying on accounting tricks will only cause more harm for communities, nature and industry. As the Commission acknowledged last week: “Every delayed investment in the energy transition risks creating greater costs to society.”
WWF is urging the European Commission to propose a robust legislative framework for the 2030s that differentiates between gross emissions reductions, carbon dioxide removals from the atmosphere by natural ecosystems such as forests and soils, and technological removals such as direct air capture. The latter should be subject to a strict environmental impact assessment to ensure that the scale-up of such technologies is environmentally sustainable. Treating emissions and removals as directly equivalent would weaken climate action by allowing continued pollution instead of reducing emissions at their source.
To make any system credible, WWF is calling for binding targets at national level with annual limits on greenhouse gas emissions for all Member States, as is the case under the current Effort Sharing Regulation up to 2030. That way the EU can better track emissions year by year than if it only sets a target for a single end-year and assumes it will be met. This is also important to minimise cumulative emissions and therefore limit further temperature rise, natural disasters and melting glaciers.
“Without targets, Member States could splurge on emissions in the early 2030s, like running up a credit card, and hope to settle the bill at the end of the decade. But interest always comes due. In climate terms, that interest is emissions piling up in the atmosphere, making climate change faster, harsher and more costly to deal with,” said Michael Sicaud‑Clyet, Climate Policy Officer at WWF EU.
WWF also stresses that national land use and forestry (LULUCF) targets must continue beyond 2030, especially as climate impacts intensify across Europe. In 2025, wildfires burned around 1 million hectares of forests, the largest area ever recorded, highlighting the urgent need to protect and restore forests. Strong ecosystems are essential to prevent runaway climate change, protect communities and nature from heatwaves, floods and droughts, and secure food and water.
The European State of the Climate report leaves no doubt about the urgency of the challenge. As the EU stands at a crossroads in reshaping its climate rules after 2030, the choices made now will determine whether Europe limits further damage in the next decade or allows the climate crisis to deepen even further.