More than 300,000 acres have been burned so far this summer in France, in the worst damage experienced by the country since the second World War. Spain, Portugal, the UK and Greece have also suffered badly, with tens of thousands of people displaced and emergency services continuing to struggle with the speed and intensity of the fires.

And yet these catastrophic wildfires are not the main story of this summer’s extreme weather. The heatwave that spread across Europe in mid-July resulted in 12,000 deaths over three days. Power plants in France were forced to shut down, train tracks buckled, roads melted, schools closed and major European rivers ran dry. In Ireland, the fields have turned to straw, demonstrating just how vulnerable a grass-fed agricultural system is to prolonged drought.

We are used to hearing about threats to European and national security and the need for increased defence funding, but the focus is invariably on potential threats from external aggression. Climate change is now a permanent and intensifying threat that kills people, damages essential infrastructure and disrupts social life in profound ways. Why is it not treated as a security priority?

Europe should have been shocked into action in 2003, when a heatwave killed more than 70,000 people. Instead, the Continent is now the fastest-heating region in the world with climate policy in reverse as defence and competitiveness dominate the EU agenda. From slowing the pace of emissions reductions to watering down climate obligations, the emphasis is on deregulation rather than........

© The Irish Times