Spain’s deadly floods put spotlight on lack of climate preparedness

Good morning.

Today, I have a dispatch on Spain’s deadly floods, and what the recurrence of such disasters means for the EU’s (lack of) crisis preparedness. And my colleague reports on a London visit that marks another baby step in the mythical EU-UK “reset”.

Have a great weekend.

Washed away

Spain’s devastating floods that claimed at least 158 lives have raised questions about the EU’s preparedness for natural disasters related to climate change, just as the EU takes stock of its readiness in the face of crises.

Context: The downpours in southern and eastern Spain were partly driven by rising water temperatures in the Mediterranean. This creates favourable conditions for intense rain, as water vapour from the warm sea clashes with cold fronts or depressions, as happened this week.

According to the World Weather Attribution group, human-caused global warming has intensified several deadly extreme weather events over the past two decades.

While rains slowed in the region of Valencia, where piled-up cars, debris and mud still lined the streets, the state meteorological society Aemet yesterday temporarily raised the emergency level to red for neighbouring Castellón.

“Please listen to the recommendations of the emergency services. Right now the most important thing is to safeguard everyone’s lives,” Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said.

But the warnings were not always clear. Aemet first raised its emergency level for the Valencia region to red early on Tuesday, but local authorities only sent out emergency text messages to citizens in the evening, more than 12 hours later.

Carlos Mazón, Valencia’s regional president, wrote on social media platform X that the emergency services had co-ordinated “according to the emergency variations issued by Aemet” and followed the appropriate protocols.

The rains in Spain came only a few weeks after heavy floods hit central and eastern Europe in September and killed more than two dozen people. This underscores the urgency to prepare for extreme weather events in Europe, the world’s fastest-warming continent.

In a report published yesterday, the European Environment Agency said that this posed “risks threatening its energy and food security, ecosystems, infrastructure, water resources, financial stability and people’s health”. 

European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen in July announced a European climate adaptation plan to help support member states prepare and plan for natural disasters and extreme weather. “One of the greatest risks to our security is the impact of climate change,” von der Leyen wrote.

The floods will push the topic higher up the agenda during hearings for the new commissioners next week, particularly for climate commissioner designate Wopke Hoekstra, who von der Leyen has tasked to come up with the adaptation plan.

Chart du jour: Numbers game

While EU countries are calling for ever harsher measures against immigration, asylum applications in the EU have been declining over the past year, according to an analysis by the EU Agency for Asylum published yesterday.

Ready to reset

EU lawmakers have signalled they are open to simplifying trade agreements that have caused ongoing friction with the UK since Brexit, writes Alice Hancock.

This week a delegation of MEPs led by the Irish lawmaker Nina Carberry toured London, meeting officials including the UK’s EU minister Nick Thomas-Symonds and secretary of state for Ireland, Hilary Benn.

Context: The visit is part of a broader warming up of UK-EU relations following a government change in the UK in July. But few concrete plans on smoothing out the rocky post-Brexit relationship have yet been put on the table.

Carberry told the FT that she would support easing sanitary checks for animals and plant material crossing the English Channel and back the development of a veterinary agreement that would smooth the flow of agrifood goods more broadly.

These “would certainly alleviate some of the existing trade friction, providing businesses in the agrifood sector with much-needed predictability”, Carberry said.

Both ideas have been flagged by the UK government as areas for potential headway.

“There’s a clear sense of optimism that a new agenda would lead to meaningful action beyond the diplomatic tone,” Carberry said, after meetings that also included UK business leaders and civil society groups.

The positive mood among EU lawmakers, who will eventually have to vote on legislation changes, is a good signal for post-Brexit relations, building on recent high-level meetings.

But official talks on the fabled “reset” of relations have been delayed until next year while EU countries decide what their initial negotiating stance should be. Energy and fishing are already looking like potential areas of conflict.

Meanwhile, UK diplomats in Brussels have been pleased with a heightened level of interest from their European counterparts, noting that officials have been much more proactive in meeting for coffee.

What to watch today

1. EU chief diplomat Josep Borrell travels to Japan.

2. EU Council president Charles Michel holds speech at World Trade Organization in Geneva.

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