EU plans new firefighting fleet after deadly summer heat wave
Ursula von der Leyen said more than 35,000 people died in Europe’s heat waves and urged new EU tools to fight worsening climate risks.
- During her State of the European Union address on Wednesday, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen proposed a European Heatwave Plan and a dedicated firefighting airplane fleet to address climate instability across the 27-nation bloc.
- A summer that dried up rivers like the Danube and Rhine caused more than 35,000 deaths, prompting the initiative; World Weather Attribution reports Europe is warming at double the global rate due to climate change.
- Currently, the European Union operates a small decentralized fleet but coordinates a network of aircraft, water trucks and volunteers across 27 nations; the proposed fleet aims to centralize these critical assets to improve response times.
- Honoring Rune Kyndal, a Danish helicopter pilot who died fighting fires in Greece in August, von der Leyen emphasized the extreme stakes for emergency responders battling increasingly severe blazes across the continent.
- Warning that this summer's extreme heat is "probably the coolest of the years to come," von der Leyen asked emergency responders to "think bigger and learn faster" to design "new capabilities" for future climate challenges.
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29 Articles
European Commission (EC) President Ursula von der Leyen said on Wednesday that Brussels will present a "heat wave plan" to better respond to extreme weather conditions after record-breaking heatwaves this summer that have battered European Union (EU) countries.
A scorching summer that dried up rivers and killed tens of thousands of people across the European Union, from Portugal to Hungary, has shown that the bloc needs to develop new tools to cope with an ever worse climate, said European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Wednesday.
The European Union (EU) wants to create an increasingly intense and frequent fire fighting fleet, having invited firefighters and emergency operatives to lead this work, announced today the President of the European Commission in Strasbourg. The content of the European Union wants to create a fire fighting fleet appears first in the National Sheet.
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