Europe's Summer of Fire: What This Season Tells Us About Forests as Carbon Stores
Europe just lived through one of its worst wildfire seasons on record, driven by a heatwave scientists say would have been virtually impossible without climate change. Beyond the toll on people and homes, the summer exposed something the climate world has tracked for years. Forests are losing ground as reliable carbon stores, right when we need them most.
A record-breaking summer
Western Europe recorded its hottest June to July period on record in 2026, according to the EU's Copernicus Climate Change Service, which measured average temperatures 2.79°C above the historical average, surpassing the previous record set in 2022. Parts of the continent endured five separate heatwaves over the summer, with temperatures exceeding 40°C in multiple countries.
The fires that followed were severe by any measure. France passed 115,000 hectares burned for the year, a national record, with the Gironde fire alone consuming around 42,000 hectares and forcing more than 220,000 evacuations. Spain and Portugal each lost tens of thousands of hectares, and fires broke out across Italy, Greece, Germany, and the UK. Across France and Spain alone, more than 320,000 people evacuated.
The science behind the heat
This wasn't ordinary summer weather. A rapid attribution analysis by World Weather Attribution, a network of scientists who study the link between climate change and extreme weather, called the June 2026 heatwave the most severe ever recorded over the region and found that comparable heat would have been "virtually impossible" in 1976. The researchers concluded that night-time temperatures like those recorded were more than a hundred times more likely than they were in 2003.
Record sea surface temperatures compounded the problem. Copernicus recorded ocean temperatures in the Mediterranean up to 6°C above normal, feeding the dry, stagnant conditions that let fires spread fast and burn hot.
What this means for forests as carbon stores
This connects directly to our work. Forests are supposed to be one of humanity's most reliable carbon sinks, absorbing roughly a third of annual CO₂ emissions from fossil fuels. That role is under measurable strain.
A 2026 study in *Nature Geoscience*, using satellite data across Europe's 216 million hectares of forest, found that aboveground biomass loss from natural disturbances, including fire, drought, and bark beetle outbreaks, has accelerated sharply since 2018. The EU has set a legal target to increase its forest carbon sink to roughly 310 megatonnes of CO₂ equivalent by 2030. Researchers now warn that rising disturbance rates make that target harder to reach.
The mechanism goes beyond the CO₂ released directly by burning. A study published in *Nature Communications* on the 2022 European drought found that heat and moisture stress reduced forest carbon uptake across the continent by 56 to 62 teragrams of carbon in a single summer. The reduction in photosynthesis exceeded the direct carbon released by fires that same period. Stressed forests stop absorbing carbon before they even burn.
A related study in the *National Science Review* found forest tree mortality across Europe has nearly doubled over the past three decades. Researchers from the RECCAP-2 project have documented a broader weakening of the European land carbon sink tied to ageing forests, increased harvesting, and climate-driven disturbance.
Forests still matter. A carbon sink under this much pressure needs active protection, not the assumption that it will keep doing its job on its own.
Why this matters for the work we fund
This is the case for taking forest protection seriously, not treating it as one project category among many. A forest that burns doesn't just release the carbon it stored. It stops absorbing new carbon for years, sometimes decades, while it recovers, and in the worst cases it doesn't recover to its prior capacity at all. Every hectare of forest kept intact this summer, whether through fire prevention, active management, or funding that keeps protection programs running, did real, measurable climate work at a moment when Europe's own forests were struggling to do the same.
Protecting existing forest, restoring degraded land, and funding the monitoring and management that keeps forests resilient isn't a side project in the climate fight. This summer showed why it has to be central to it.
Sources
- World Economic Forum — Europe's devastating heatwaves and wildfires in 4 charts
- CNN — Western Europe breaks temperature record in summer plagued by heatwaves and wildfires
- Mappr — Wildfires Across Europe in 2026: Mapping the Fires, the Deaths, and the Record Heat
- Euronews — Wildfires in Europe: Is 2026 already the worst year on record?
- World Weather Attribution — Fossil fuel emissions have rapidly worsened European heatwaves in just a few decades
- Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service — Extreme wildfires in western Europe expose millions to dangerous air pollution levels
- Kowalski, K. et al. — Accelerating biomass loss from forest disturbances across Europe, *Nature Geoscience*
- van der Woude, A. et al. — Temperature extremes of 2022 reduced carbon uptake by forests in Europe, *Nature Communications*
- National Science Review — Alarming decline in the carbon sink of European forests driven by disturbances
- European Space Agency Climate Office — Europe's forests losing their carbon sink power