Spain accounts for 44% of everything that burned in the EU in 2026

Summer 2026 has left Spain in the worst place in Europe. According to a Zero Carbon Analytics report based on data from Europe’s EFFIS system, Spain lost about 299,000 hectares to wildfires up to 23 September: 44% of all the area burned in the European Union.

The numbers

Country	Share of EU burned area
Spain	44% (≈299,000 ha)
Italy	17%
France	14%

• About 680,000 hectares burned across the EU, nearly double the average for 2006–2025 at that point in the year.
• Mediterranean countries account for 94%.
• 2026 is the third-worst year since records began in 2006, behind only 2022 and 2025.

A record July

In July, Spain beat its previous record for burned area in that month, set in 2022, by 21%, and the EU hit its all-time monthly record with 353,000 hectares. And summer wasn’t over: on 6 August the Niebla wildfire began in Huelva, the largest on record in Spain.

According to World Weather Attribution analyses cited in the report, human-caused global warming made the fire weather in central Spain in July at least 20 times more likely.

Smoke, CO₂ and insurance

• Near Madrid, fine particles (PM2.5) reached a daily average of 96 µg/m³, more than six times the WHO guideline.
• EU wildfires emitted about 29.5 million tonnes of CO₂ up to September, 1.4 times the average.
• 75% of losses from climate disasters in the EU between 1980 and 2024 were uninsured.

“We are witnessing a dangerous structural shift in Europe’s wildfire landscape,” warns Joanne Bentley-McKune, the study’s lead author. “Treating wildfires solely as emergencies to respond to is no longer viable.”

Prevent, don’t just put out

Experts stress landscape management: less built-up fuel, more extensive grazing and patchworks of farmland that slow the fire. And after the fire, good restoration, like the work being studied in Castilla y León’s burned forests.

If you hike in summer, read what to do if you encounter a wildfire.