Wildfires in Spain kills 12: 'We are not prepared enough' • FRANCE 24 English

Well, we can now bring in Jean-Pascal van Ypressel, a professor of climatology and environmental sciences at the UC Louvain and the former vice chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Thanks for joining us. Now, as we just heard, at least 12 people have died in these fires in southern Spain, many of them fleeing in their cars and on foot.

Officials say they some of them did ignore these orders to stay put. But when a fire is burning at six thousand, six hundred hectares in two days, what does this tragedy tell us about the gap between how fast these fires are traveling, how fast they're moving and how prepared people actually are? Well, it's unfortunately, and I'm very sad for what is happening, that we are not prepared enough for the conditions that favor those fires and those conditions essentially coming from human induced and fossil fuel induced climate change.

I mean, it's because the the forests are so dry that those fires are so as so widespread and intense. Of course, it's not climate change which is light lighting those fires, but it's it is kind of loading the dice so that those fires become more frequent and more intense. So it is very sad, but what happened, what happens now is shows that once again, because it's the same for human consequences in the health system, it shows once again that we are not prepared enough and also that we have not worked enough to prevent such climate change because the greenhouse gas emissions and CO2 emissions, et cetera, are still not decreasing fast enough to prevent even worse conditions.

Well, on that note, we heard just from yourself and other scientists saying that June's heat wave that we're experiencing so far would have been virtually impossible without human caused climate change. climate change. And so for viewers who hear this every summer, what is genuinely different or new about 2026?

Well, every year is is is different, of course, and and every year will not automatically have more fires than the preceding year. than the preceding year. But the trend is is very clear.

The the trend is a trend of increasing temperature, drier summer. And those conditions are unfortunately perfect to help more fires to to develop when they are lit. And that's the that's the very clear trend.

I mean, the the the areas that are covered by forest fires in in Europe is is becoming extremely large. I mean, it's it's more than 150,000 hectares which have been which have burnt already this year. It is not as much yet as what burnt last year, but we may well break this record this later in the summer.

Well, we already know that Europe is warming twice as fast as the global average. Why is this continent specifically on the front line and what does this mean for the next decade? Well, there are first of all continents in general are warming faster than the global average.

And that's because the ocean has a kind of moderating influence. It's it's harder to to to warm and to heat the the ocean than than the continents. Part of Europe is also close to the Arctic where sea ice, the thin layer of ice which is floating on the ocean is melting very quickly, which amplifies the warming because if there is less ice, there's more heat coming into the ocean.

And this helps the northern part of Europe at least to to warm even more than the central part of Europe. And those are some of the key reasons why Europe is warming so much. And it helps to have such dire consequences in on the area of human health and also in the area of forest fires, unfortunately.

So in France, for example, officials say that the fire season started weeks earlier than usual. I think it was 54 departments. Is fire season even a meaningful concept anymore?

Are we heading towards a year round risk? Do we need to change our phrasing in all of this? Well, certainly the fire season or the season during which fires are possible or likely is certainly increasing because drought conditions, dry conditions, particularly this year, for example, occurred quite early.

And the combination of dryness and heat make fires when they start much more intense and hard to contain. And then if there is wind on top of those conditions, then that fire can can spread very quickly. So, yes, we need to to to to to prepare almost throughout the year, but at least certainly not only during just the summer for those fires.

And it's not only a question of having more fighter firefighters or more planes carrying water. It's also in very much so a matter of improving the way we manage the landscape so that we we could prevent the spread of those fires, which today spread very quickly because the forests are not the forest areas are not interrupted by other kinds of surface like fields, grazing areas, etc. It's also a question of making sure that people, you know, remove the the dead vegetation, small vegetation that's lying on the ground like which is mandatory in large part of the southern part of Europe.

And it's not always done. It's also a matter of choosing the the kind of trees that are planted where there when there are plantations of trees. I mean, if it's a lot of coniferous forest of the same kind, for example, on a very large area, it's less robust against fires than if it's a combination of different kinds of trees, including the trees like oaks and other non coniferous trees.

So there are many things that can be done outside of the fire period to prevent the occurrence and the spreading of those fires. Now, many of these victims in southern Spain were foreign residents and tourists, and it is believed that maybe they did not understand these shelter in place orders. How should countries rethink these warning systems if this is going to be an increasing event?

You know, how should we rethink warning systems for a mobile multilingual population? Well, I think governments would need to talk with and listen to communication specialists. And I'm not a communication specialist to know how to communicate better on those issues.

I think it's also part of the denial. What we are seeing is also part of the denial of many people about climate change and its consequences. many people and including unfortunately many policymakers have totally underestimated the severity of the consequences of human induced climate change.

I mean, we really need to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases which are causing this climate disruption. And at the same time, we need to, in parallel, both need to be done. We need to prepare much better for the consequences of that climate change.

And of course, information, communication, education about all those issues is very important, need to be improved. Everybody should be much aware of what needs to be done, both to reduce emissions and to prepare for the changing climate change. conditions that climate change are causing.

And lastly, after the cameras leave, what does recovery look like for these Mediterranean ecosystems and rural communities? And how can they realistically rebuild in place or are we facing managed retreat from some landscapes? Well, there'll certainly be some managed retreats from some landscapes.

Well, in the same way, when you think about sea level rise, there's also some retreat that will be needed there because there'll be territories which will not be inhabitable anymore in the future. But it's also an opportunity to rethink the way we use the territory, we use the landscape. It's an opportunity to maybe reorganize to a certain extent the space distribution of residential areas, services, forests, grazing fields, etc.

It's an opportunity also to rethink how we interact with the forest. I mean, do we plant monocultures of some trees which can take fire very quickly or do we diversify, which would increase the robustness of those forests against the fire in the future? I mean, this crisis is also an opportunity to make more clever choices for the future to decrease the consequences.

Professor, thank you so much for speaking to me. I like what you were saying about taking the opportunity to rethink this. I've been speaking to Jean-Pascal van Ipecil, a professor of climatology and environmental sciences at UC Louvain.

Thank you for your time. I appreciate it. Thank you.

Thank you.