The recent narrative around Ireland’s above average temperatures has been largely positive, coming at a time when many can make the most of outdoor life. But the temperatures are also part of a trend that is alarming. According to Met Éireann, July 2025 was the 9th warmest July and 12th warmest of any month in 126 years of Irish records, with an average temperature of 16.59 °C, which is 1.74 °C above the 1961-1990 long-term average. Of the top ten warmest Julys, five, including last month, have occurred since 2006.
This is part of a 21st century crisis. Ireland, given its relative coolness due to the Atlantic Ocean, mostly avoids the extremes of elsewhere, but the situation in some other European countries during the summer months is distressing and unbearable. Scorching heat has generated wildfires that Spain, Portugal and Greece struggle to contain. Firefighting operations are becoming more fraught, with Southern Europe experiencing one of its worst wildfire seasons in 20 years, amidst temperatures of up to 45°C.
There is nothing surprising in this given the reports of the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, containing the findings of hundreds of climate scientists, and generating “now or never” conclusions about the need for drastic action. According to the EU’s Science Hub, 894,770 hectares of land – equivalent to 13 per cent of the land area of Ireland – has been burnt by wildfire since the beginning of this year. Last year, in the same period, the area burnt was 212,729 hectares. It finds that 1,736 fires have been detected since the beginning of the year, compared to 1,185 for the same period last year.
What this means for some countries is now horribly apparent. This year, wildfires have destroyed 382,000 hectares in Spain, with one-quarter of Spanish weather stations recording 40°C temperatures. Spanish prime minister Pedro Sánchez has spoken of the fires as clear proof that the climate emergency is hitting Spain harder each year. He has called for a “state pact” within Spain to address the climate emergency, in order “to move beyond legislatures and turn climate emergency policies into state policies that bind all our institutions and all those that govern”.
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His declaration has wider relevance given that Europe is the fastest-warming continent. The rollback of the EU’s environmental and climate policies in such areas as sustainable finance rules, deforestation, pollution targets and anti-greenwashing law underlines the fragility of the “Green Deal” adopted by the European Commission in 2019. Given the summer wildfires, the warnings of Belgian climate scientist Joeri Rogelj carry even more weight: “Political decisions that disregard evidence… will be harshly course-corrected by the hard physical reality of climate change”.
