European Environment Agency

🔥🇧🇪 A wildfire that broke out on 14 August 2026 in the High Fens (Hautes Fagnes) nature reserve, in the province of Liège, eastern Belgium, has become the country's largest wildfire on record. By 16 August, around 3,000 hectares had burned, prompting evacuations from nearby villages. The High Fens is one of Belgium's most significant protected landscapes, a raised bog and heathland ecosystem supporting rare species adapted to its wet, peaty soils. Fires in peatland habitats such as this can damage carbon-rich soils that have taken centuries to form, with recovery for such ecosystems typically slow. 🛰️ This image, acquired by a Copernicus Sentinel-2 satellite on 16 August, shows the burn scar beneath dense smoke cover. The Copernicus Emergency Management Service has activated its Rapid Mapping component (EMSR920) to assess the extent of the damage. Fires of this scale are increasingly affecting parts of central and northern Europe not traditionally prone to them, as prolonged drought and heat extend fire risk beyond the Mediterranean. If you want to find out more about the effects of climate change on ecosystems: https://lnkd.in/evDNZGQK #Wildfires #Copernicus #ClimateChange #Biodiversity

Extreme heatwaves and severe wildfires continue to affect parts of Europe, including Spain and France. Each summer seems to bring new temperature records and renewed efforts to respond to these events. Many of our followers already work with climate-related issues, while for others, recent summers may have changed how they think about climate risks.

Europe is experiencing severe drought, affecting agriculture, transport, energy production and ecosystems. While data for 2026 are still being collected, findings from 2025 show the scale of the challenge. In 2025, drought affected nearly 928,000 km² across Europe, an area around two and a half times the size of Germany. Drought impacts on vegetation were higher than the levels typically observed between 2000 and 2020, continuing a long-term trend of increasing vegetation stress.   Agriculture was among the hardest-hit sectors, with more than 111,000 km² of cropland failing to recover to baseline conditions. Forests, grasslands and urban green spaces were also affected, raising concerns for carbon sequestration, biodiversity, food production and human wellbeing.   As droughts and heatwaves become more frequent, strengthening resilience through better water management, nature-based solutions and climate adaptation is becoming increasingly important. 🔗 Read more: https://lnkd.in/evTVvBTE

Join me at #WorldAgriTech London on September 22-23. Looking forward to discussions with leading voices from across agribusiness, food, investment, technology, and policy. Together, we'll explore how innovation, investment and collaboration can build more resilient, productive and profitable agri-food systems. https://lnkd.in/gH3-78iW #Climateresilientagriculture #farmeconomics #EuropeanEnvironmentAgency

This summer, as heatwaves, wildfires and drought have dominated the headlines across Europe, our experts have stepped forward to help the public make sense of it all. Blaz Kurnik, head of our Climate risk and resilience unit, shares a personal look behind the scenes of a live interview with one of the world's largest news organisations, and reflects on why explaining climate risk clearly to a wider audience matters as much as the science itself. Read his post below. 👇 #ClimateChange #ClimateAdaptation #ClimateRisk #Resilience 

This year's EEA photo competition closed on 10 August, and we want to thank all the people for their time and effort to submit entries. The 'Resilient by Nature' competition saw a 56% increase in participation from last year and we received a total of 2790 entries from 2678 participants from across Europe. The public vote will open on 14 September and winners in all categories will be announced on 9 October 2026. Thank-you for your entries and for your interest in our environment!

Proteins are essential for our health, but the way they are produced and consumed also shapes Europe’s environment, economy and food security. The EU remains heavily dependent on imported protein feed for livestock production, while animal-based products account for around 60% of protein intake. These patterns influence land use, trade dependencies and environmental pressures across Europe. #Foodforthought Understanding how we produce and consume protein is key to building a more resilient, sustainable and resource-efficient food system. 🔎 Check our report on this topic: https://lnkd.in/eSVCFf97

In 2025, a total of 3,157 textile items were brought in for repair at one of the 168 Repair Cafés located across eight EU countries. These Repair Cafés log their activities in the ‘Repair Monitor’, an online tool developed by the Repair Café International Foundation. Of the items brought in, 3,000 were successfully repaired, corresponding to a repair success rate of 95%. Trousers and pants, as well as coats and jackets, were the most frequently brought in items, together accounting for 45% of all textile products repaired in 2025. In addition to recording the type of product and repair outcome, the Repair Monitor also logs the difficulty of each repair. Analysis of these data shows that the proportion of repairs classified as ‘(rather) difficult’ has increased over time. 👚 👟 👕 Textiles are everywhere and shape our daily lives. However, their production, use and after use processing cause many environmental and climate pressures. 💡 Reducing such pressures requires a shift towards a more circular and sustainable textiles system of production and consumption with extended product use, increased reuse, repair and more efficient recycling. 🔗 Learn more about this topic on: https://lnkd.in/esppu8_y