European Wildfires, Net-Zero Stagnation, & The Great Industry Displacement

European Wildfires, Net-Zero Stagnation, & The Great Industry Displacement Authored by Daniel Lacalle, Europe’s wildfire crisis has also exposed the failure of public spending rhetoric unsupported by effective land and forest management. EU governments spent 40.6 billion euros on fire protection services in 2023. In 2022, the total expenditure stood at EUR 37.4 billion. The European Court of Auditors discovered that spending oversight was incomplete, result monitoring was weak, and there was no assurance that the most impactful actions received financing. At the same time, the average annual burnt area in...