Europe Bakes as Momentum on Climate Action Stalls

A heat wave that has blanketed Europe for more than a week has killed eight people, while leading to widespread closures and upending daily life. More than half of Italy’s regions have banned outdoor work in the afternoon, while the high temperatures have also fueled wildfires in Spain, Portugal, Greece and Turkey. The heat wave is expected to move eastward today to Central and Eastern Europe.

Our Take

This is now the third July in a row in which we’ve covered a major heat wave stifling Europe. And while its effects are certainly disruptive, even deadly, each time around, the story of the heat wave itself has not changed much. The Mediterranean region’s climate is now regularly intolerable in the summer months, and because the West receives more international coverage than other regions of the world, extreme weather events in Europe and the U.S. are often the most visible reminders of the effects of climate change and the urgent need for climate action.

In previous years, those reminders would have been accompanied by meaningful discussions about what that climate action should and could look like. Over the past year, though, the momentum on addressing and mitigating the effects of climate change has all but vanished. The most obvious reason for that, of course, is the return of U.S. President Donald Trump to the White House, as his administration has not only dismantled many of the climate policies enacted under former President Joe Biden, but is in many ways implementing an anti-environmentalist agenda.