Climate change fades from spotlight, but Europe and Africa are counting cost of 2025 wildfires

As global attention shifts away from climate change debates, Europe and Africa are feeling the harsh financial, environmental and human toll of wildfires in 2025, blazes that scientists and activists say highlight the growing urgency behind what many consider a fading issue.

Southern Europe has endured its worst wildfire season on record, with over 1 million hectares burned across the EU so far, according to data from the European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS).

In countries like Spain and Portugal, fire risks were amplified by record-breaking heatwaves and prolonged dry periods, which turned forests and farmland into tinderboxes.

Meanwhile, across Africa, the damage is both more extensive and less visible to the international media. A satellite-based Global Wildfire Information System report showed that in 2024, approximately 7.3% of Africa’s landmass burned, compared to just 0.6% in Europe and the US.

The impacts range from loss of homes and livelihoods, to reduced agricultural output, destroyed ecosystems and increased vulnerability to climate-induced disasters.

Despite the severity, political and media focus has shifted elsewhere. Coverage of climate issues has waned, according to climate watchers even as scientific assessments continue to warn that warming trends will likely heighten fire risk.

In Europe, hotter summers and shifting weather patterns are creating longer fire seasons; in Africa, inadequate early warning systems and overstretched firefighting capacities are making the risk much harder to manage.

“There’s been an increase in fires in tropical forests like the Congo Basin, which historically have not burnt before,” James MacCarthy, research associate at Global Forest Watch, speaking to The Independent. “A lot of the plant species here don’t have adaptations to fire, making it harder to recover than in the Savannah.”

Financial losses in Europe are already large: one study from the EU estimates €43 billion in short-term losses this summer due to infrastructure damage, disrupted tourism, firefighting costs and agricultural loss.

In Africa, many of the costs remain uncalculated but are expected to be proportionally higher relative to economic capacity and less visible in global reports.

As UI and environmental agencies warn, wildfire seasons are extending earlier and lasting longer. Experts say that preventing this growing catastrophe will require more than firefighting, it demands better land management, more reliable early warning systems and greater international support for adaptation in fire-prone regions.