Deadly Wildfires Show Spain Must Better Prepare for Climate Crisis, Says Sánchez

The wildfires that have devoured 382,000 hectares of land in Spain and killed four people underscore the need to "readjust and recalibrate" the country's preparation and response capacities to tackle the impacts of the climate emergency, the prime minister has warned.

- Sam Jones

Speaking during a visit to the south-western region of Extremadura yesterday, Pedro Sánchez said that while the record-breaking 16-day heatwave that had fanned the flames was over, "difficult hours" lay ahead as firefighters continued to battle huge blazes.

The prime minister said the wildfires - and last year's disastrous floods in the eastern region of Valencia - were clear proof that the climate emergency was hitting the country harder and harder each year.

According to Spain's Carlos III public health institute, 1,149 excess deaths across the country between 3 August and 18 August are likely to have been linked to the heatwave.

"We need to prepare and be better equipped with mechanisms and tools so that we can mitigate the effects of these climate emergencies when they happen," said Sánchez. "The climate emergency is getting worse and more recurrent each year, and the effects of that emergency are accelerating each year."

He said that when he spoke to people affected by the fires, they told him that they expected a non-ideological approach to the climate crisis that went beyond four-year governmental terms.

"For all the scientific predictions about how the climate emergency would apparently evolve, we're seeing that it's getting worse and hitting much harder each year, particularly across the Iberian peninsula," he said. "We need to readjust and recalibrate both our response and prevention capacities."