
Putting out the blaze: Wildfire risk management begins well before fire season
As of July 2025, almost 300,000 hectares of forest – an area larger than Luxembourg – has gone up in flames in Europe. What is more, the number of wildfire events could increase by 50% globally by the end of the century due to a combination of changes in climate and land use and management. These threats will tend to concentrate in hotspots such as the Mediterranean, where over 80% of European wildfires occur and which experienced upwards of 2.5 billion euros in wildfire related damages in 2022 alone.