{"id":2054,"date":"2026-07-08T11:02:40","date_gmt":"2026-07-08T09:02:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kaitegethoff.org\/?p=2054"},"modified":"2026-07-08T11:03:55","modified_gmt":"2026-07-08T09:03:55","slug":"europe-is-not-prepared-for-heatwaves","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kaitegethoff.org\/en\/press-release\/europe-is-not-prepared-for-heatwaves\/","title":{"rendered":"“Europe is not prepared for heatwaves”"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Strasbourg, 8 July 2026<\/strong> – With 44 degrees recorded in Spain, wildfires burning in France, and extreme heat across Switzerland and Germany, MEP Kai Tegethoff (Volt) today wrote to the Commission setting out his recommendations for the upcoming integrated EU framework for climate resilience, due this autumn. Tegethoff, who sits on the Parliament’s Environment Committee, is pressing for a framework built on fundamental climate resilience principles, measurable targets and clear accountability, rather than good intentions. Lorem ipsum dolor, sit amet, consetetur sadipscing elitr, sed diam nonumy eirmod tempor invidunt ut labore et dolore magna aliquyam erat.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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The summer science warned us about<\/h4>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\u201cThis is exactly the summer science warned us about. Europe is boiling, and many are only beginning to understand that this is the new normal,” Tegethoff said. “But panic won’t protect anyone, nor can we afford cheap activism. What we need now is a long-term plan. Scientists have already identified the greatest risks to our continent – it is now our responsibility to reduce these risks through concrete action.\u201d

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His letter points to the first European Climate Risk Assessment, which identified 36 major risks for Europe, several already at critical level. Tegethoff warns that the burden falls hardest on those least able to bear it.

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\u201cEurope is not prepared for heatwaves, and it’s the poorest and most vulnerable who will feel the effects first – they are suffering right now,” he said. “Our hospitals do not have enough air conditioning, our cities aren’t green enough, and our homes aren’t sufficiently insulated. Resilience cannot become a privilege for those who can afford to escape the heat. It has to be a priority for society as a whole.”<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Climate adaptation is no luxury<\/h4>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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At the heart of the proposal are structural changes. “First, we have to agree on the facts – a single baseline for everyone to plan against the same reality, differentiated across Member States to reflect their distinct risk profiles,” Tegethoff said. “We need clear targets to reduce every single one of the risks science has identified. And we need a real, funded role for nature-based solutions that pay for themselves many times over.\u201d

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Tegethoff is equally insistent that the Framework rest on a clear set of principles governing how Europe adapts. “Adaptation done badly can make things worse \u2014 walls that push floods downstream, cooling that drives up emissions, investments that lock us into the wrong path for decades,” he said. “So we need firm principles built into the law: do no harm, don’t undermine our climate targets, work across sectors rather than in silos, and build back better after every disaster so that each response leaves us stronger and wiser than the last.”

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“This is a chance we must not miss,\u201d he concluded. \u201cWhen the Framework is presented this autumn, it must answer the questions that matter. Europeans are already living with the consequences of a changing climate \u2013 they deserve a Union that is honest about the risks and serious about meeting them. Adaptation is not a luxury. It is the protection of lives, livelihoods and the places we call home.\u201d<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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Proposals for climate adaptation<\/h4>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Letter to the EU Commission<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t<\/path><\/svg>\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tDownload<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In a letter to the European Commission, Kai Tegethoff proposes a set of measures to coordinate and streamline climate adaptation efforts<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1848,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2054","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-press-release"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kaitegethoff.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2054","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kaitegethoff.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kaitegethoff.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kaitegethoff.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kaitegethoff.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2054"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/kaitegethoff.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2054\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2063,"href":"https:\/\/kaitegethoff.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2054\/revisions\/2063"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kaitegethoff.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1848"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kaitegethoff.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2054"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kaitegethoff.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2054"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kaitegethoff.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2054"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}