By Kate Abnett
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union has coordinated a record number of emergency responses to extreme weather this year, as climate change fuels wildfires and other disasters in Europe, the world's fastest-warming continent.
Europe's fire season typically peaks in June to September, but climate change increases hot and dry conditions that have contributed to the fire season starting earlier and burning more land.
To help EU members and other countries that request emergency help, the bloc oversees and funds the deployment of firefighting airplanes and medical teams pooled by member countries - a system known as the EU civil protection mechanism.
It has been activated 31 times this year so far in response to extreme weather - more weather-related deployments than in any other year to date, European Commission data shared with Reuters showed.
The scheme was deployed 23 times in response to extreme weather in the whole of 2023.
Most of this year's activations were to tackle wildfires. The 19 wildfire responses the EU coordinated this year already exceed the total in any other year in records going back to 2007. The EU civil protection scheme was formed in 2001.
The EU sent firefighting planes to Albania, Greece and the Portuguese island of Madeira last month, in response to requests for emergency help from those governments.
It also sent firefighting aircraft to Bulgaria and North Macedonia in July.
The EU's reserve fleet of 28 firefighting planes and four helicopters from its member countries has more than doubled since 2022, when devastating fires in southern Europe exhausted its previous 13-craft capacity.
"Heatwaves are becoming hotter and longer lasting, which dries out vegetation, particularly in periods of low rainfall, creating tinderbox conditions," Ben Clarke, a climate researcher at Imperial College London's Grantham Institute, said. "Hot and dry fire-prone conditions are increasing, notably in southern Europe."
By the time Greece's worst wildfire this year broke out in mid-August near Athens, the country had already faced over 3,500 fires since May, a nearly 50% increase from the same period in 2023.
Ahead of this summer, the EU stationed 556 firefighters across countries including Greece and Spain.
Brussels has also placed orders for the first directly EU-owned firefighting planes, due for delivery from 2027.