🌡 LET’S POLITICISE HEATWAVES

Dear Reader

😡 This furnace-like heat pisses me off.

“But Alberto, you’re from Madrid. Surely, you’re used to it?” Until the day persianas (window blinds) become mandatory north of the Pyrenees, I’m not having this conversation. Sorry.

Europe is roasting this week. France has seen temperatures above 40°C in June. Schools have closed. Trains have been cancelled because they can’t cope with the heat. Hospitals are on alert. People are literally dying trying to cool off. And there are wildfires in Greenland – still a dystopian sentence to type.

My eco-anxiety has long been overtaken by eco-anger.

Every heatwave comes with the same dose of denial from politicians, and the usual advice from the media: drink water, stay in the shade, check on your neighbours, work from home if possible. Sensible advice, of course. But why do we talk about individual coping mechanisms more than the political choices that got us here? Why do we discuss hydration more than fossil fuels?

Europe is already warming twice as fast as the global average. What we are experiencing today will look relatively mild compared to what lies ahead if we don’t cut emissions fast. Every attempt to delay investments or water down climate legislation in the name of “competitiveness” should be treated for what it is: a direct attack on our lives.

My grumpy rant ends here.

On the bright side, not every summer has to be the hottest summer of your life (meteorologically). Solutions exist. The EU is on the path to a renewables revolution and has set out a green agenda that offers a unique opportunity to clean up pollution, restore nature, and build a fairer, fossil-free future. This isn’t just another item on the political agenda. It’s the agenda. Let’s defend it, tooth and nail. In every political battle, every protest, every petition.

In this edition, we cover:

• Behind heatwaves: methane, smog and refrigerants
• What exactly is the problem omnibuses are trying to solve?
• EU plans to let mining giants drain regions
• On our radar: watchdogs, bears and heat pumps

If you enjoy reading this newsletter, crafted in extreme heat, consider buying us an iced latte☕

Happy reading.

🤔 WHAT YOU DON’T KNOW ABOUT HEATWAVES

Heat fuels toxic smog. Ever feel like the air is thick and almost hard to breathe during heatwaves? That’s photochemical smog kicking in, a toxic mix turbocharged by heat and fed in part by methane from industrial agriculture (yes, we are talking of cows’ farts). This type of pollution leads to an estimated 70,000 premature deaths and €2 billion in crop losses across the EU. Read our press release.

AC guilty feelings? Today is World Refrigeration Day, a reminder of a sector that is becoming increasingly central in a hotter world. As temperatures rise, demand for cooling is surging across homes, hospitals, data centres and cities. A lot of current cooling systems still rely on F-gases, extremely potent climate warmers that leak forever chemicals into the atmosphere. What a tragedy, isn’t it?

Don’t sweat it. The cool cooling actually exists. Climate-friendly, natural refrigerants are already here, scaling fast, and backed by EU rules phasing out the worst offenders (F-gases). As usual, the real challenge is now implementation, enforcement, and not pretending the problem is already resolved. Read more.

For the nuclear lover boys: nukes don’t like heatwaves. In France, nuclear reactors are already being forced to shut down when rivers get too hot to cool them safely, cutting output right when electricity use peaks. The gap is then filled by gas, prices spike across France, Belgium and beyond, and the “reliable baseload” narrative from nuclear lovers starts to look shaky fast. In a rapidly warming Europe, nuclear rigidity isn’t equal to stability, but vulnerability.

Nature is literally our AC. In Brussels this week, satellites showed sealed city surfaces hitting 47°C+, while the nearby Sonian Forest stayed around 24.5°C. This is basically a 23°C gap, just a few kilometres apart. That’s the urban heat island effect: concrete turns cities into ovens, trees keep them liveable. Today, more than ever, hands off nature.

🔎 DEREGULATION WATCH

In this section, we bring you the latest developments on the Brussels simplification fever:

Task successfully failed. This week, Member States failed to agree on one of the most controversial parts of the Environmental Omnibus: “simplifying” environmental assessments for construction projects. The file is now heading to the Irish Presidency with plenty of headaches still attached. Who could have predicted that overhauling decades-old legislation would lead to more problems, not fewer?

Complication push. The wider “simplification” package does move ahead in parts, covering industrial reporting, chemicals rules, batteries and environmental data systems. But even here, Member States are already splitting on what “less burden” actually means in practice, with new loopholes, new definitions, and new disputes layered onto existing rules.

Have you tried staffing it? Scientists, NGOs and even many governments keep repeating the same thing: if permitting is slow, invest in public administrations, regulators and enforcement agencies. Crippling environmental safeguards won’t magically speed things up. It will do the opposite: create legal uncertainty, fuel public opposition and send more projects straight to court.

Meanwhile in Luxembourg… While ministers debated deregulation in Luxembourg, Europe was dealing with heat alerts, transport disruptions and school closures. Sometimes reality provides its own impact assessment.

Spain habla claro. Spain sounded the alarm over plans to absorb LIFE into a broader competitiveness fund. An odd reward for one of the EU’s most successful programmes, which has spent three decades quietly delivering actual results for nature, climate and local communities. Fold it into a mega-fund, and there’s no guarantee that taxpayers’ money for the environment won’t end up chasing whatever the next “priority” gets called.

Science has entered the Omnibus chat. Researchers from 27 institutions warned that weakening pesticide rules won’t boost innovation; it could kill it. Evidence, evidence, evidence. Without it, we’re just making policy on vested interests. Europe cannot afford to abandon the science-based path.

🌵 DIGGING IN DRYLANDS

Dig first, ask questions later. The European Commission is considering changes to the Water Framework Directive to speed up permitting for critical minerals mining, including in already water-stressed regions.

Wrong places, wrong pressures. Mining needs vast volumes of water for processing, dust control, and waste. Over half of the 33 strategic mines mapped are planned in areas facing long-term drought stress. Spain, Portugal and Greece feature heavily, all among Europe’s driest regions.  Read the full article in The Guardian, where EEB is cited.

Good news for Europe’s rivers is that ministers from Spain, Hungary, France and Denmark pushed back against Commission plans to reopen EU water laws, saying the existing rules already have enough flexibility for projects like mining. Water authorities have been saying the same thing for years: the Water Framework Directive is not what’s blocking permits. Is the Commission listening?

📡 ON OUR RADAR

💔 Watchdog funding. The Aarhus Convention (guaranteeing your right to know, speak up, and go to court on environmental issues) is in a funding crisis. More than half of countries haven’t paid their 2026 dues, including big EU players. This isn’t just about money: it’s the only system protecting environmental defenders, and it’s being weakened just as SLAPPs rise and civic space shrinks, right when accountability matters most. We will follow up on this next week.

🐻 Bear with us. Bears belong in Europe, but some EU countries are again pushing to weaken their protection, despite clear scientific advice to the contrary. We have already seen it with wolves; less protection didn’t solve anything, it just made coexistence harder. Science is clear: the answer lies in prevention, management, and actually making space for wildlife.

⚠️ Keep the ETS on course. As the EU reopens its carbon market, the usual suspects are back pushing for more free permits and weaker rules. It’s basically polluters asking for cheaper pollution. The ETS already works: it cuts emissions and kills fossil fuel dependency. Weakening it won’t make Europe more “competitive”; it’ll just reward laggards and make the climate crisis more expensive later. Read our paper.

🍿 Movie date? Join us on 8 July at Cinema Palast for a special screening of Our Land, organised in collaboration with Imagine. Don’t miss it! More information here.

🧠✨ DOPAMINE HIT

As ever, here are a few happy updates to get your weekend off to a perky start:

• French court orders TotalEnergies to account for indirect emissions of end users. Read more.
• Regenerative farms lost three times less yield in France’s droughts. Here’s why.
• Europe’s heat pumps replace Middle East gas imports twice over. Read more.
• Global mangrove forests rebound, offering a hopeful sign for climate and coastal resilience. Read more.
• Iran war supercharges electric vehicle uptake in Africa. Read more.

🧚 THE JOB FAIRY

• Become the next New Leaf mate, EEB is looking for a Communications Officer.
• Energy Cities is looking for a Communications Officer.
• CINEA is looking for a Head of Communications.
• Oceana Europe is looking for a Campaign Assistant.

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By: Alberto Vela. Special thanks to the EEB’s editorial team: Roi Gomez and Ben Snelson. Editor: Christian Skrivervik